The Empire
by VerifiedBreeze
Summary: The year is 1000 A.D, currently in the world of Poketopia a huge development has happened. The Empire ruled by the powerful Maple family has taken over the Kanto region! Can Ash realize his destiny as the chosen one and lead the revolutionary army to victory to reclaim his homeland? A epic tale of adventure, tragedy and even romance.
1. The Chosen One

**The year is 1000 A.D, currently in the world of Poketopia a huge development has happened. The Empire ruled by the powerful Maple family has taken over the Kanto region. The war was huge as the King of Kanto led his land in a series of battles in hopes of driving The Empire's army out of his land. To his shock however his army was nothing in comparison to the army led by The eldest son of the Maple family. After the battles the Maple family moved from their castle in the Hoenn region and settled in the newest addition to their empire. They decided to make this move so they could deal with the revolutionaries in the conquered territory a lot easier. This is were our story begins...**

* * *

An ebony haired teen looked out the window of his small hut at the huge castle that had settled on his land. His teeth gritted as he thought of the monsters that lived there. To attack out of no where with no remorse was the act of demons. To kill thousands of men some who were never fighters, but went to battle to protect their land all because of the greed of the Maple Family only to fail. The boy known as Ash Ketchum made up his mind then and there. His brother Gary had informed him that anybody men or women with the will to still fight should go join the revolutionaries. Ash loved to fight, sure he was never a warrior, but he could definitely hold his own against one. The only reason Ash didn't fight in the war when The Empire first attacked was because his father made him promise that he nor Gary would get involved.

Ash shook thoughts of his father out of his mind as he stood up and walked outside. Today the Maple family were having a speech to "celebrate" their victory. What kind of people did it take for them to actually brag to the people who they beat about beating them. After gritting his teeth once more the 19 year old walked down the village road until he saw the crowd of people gathering at what he suspected to be the place were the speech was happening.

After about 30 minutes of chatter among the village people the sound of trumpets began to be heard signaling the arrival of the royal family. The King and the Queen along with their daughter and son stepped on the platform. Everybody listened as the King prepared his speech

"Hello my subjects! I am your new ruler. I know that as of now I am not in good favor with a lot of you, but I am willing to compromise." The King started his words gaining the attention of the whole crowd including Ash.

"I will not change any of the old King's policy's nor will I put any type of enormous tax on you, but in return I need a favor." The King stated ending in a slight pause.

"If any of you know about any revolutionary revolts, or anything that endangers me or my family speak now. For if i discover that you are withholding information you will be charged with treason and you will be EXECUTED!" The King bellowed in a loud tone completely different from the one he used just moments earlier.

Ash couldn't help but notice the son of the Royal family smile as his father said this statement and couldn't stop himself from getting angry.

"What's so funny!" Ash yelled from the crowd earning him a look from all of his peers including the Royal family.

"I'm sorry son, but who are you addressing in that tone of voice!" The King bellowed

"That arrogant asshole you call a son!" Ash shouted back with no fear in his voice.

"That's quite enough! Beg for forgiveness and I will think about letting this incident slide!" The King yelled losing his temper.

"No father it's fine. I guess it's easy for a peasant to talk big when I'm all the way up here." The eldest Maple boy told his father as he began to walk down toward Ash.

Ash filled with determination welcomed the challenge of embarrassing one of the "monsters" who had taken over his land. Soon the prince was in front of Ash. It seemed that even though the prince was said to be 21 he was around the same height as Ash and they had the same built.

"Now what was it that you were saying peasant." The prince stated in a cocky tone.

"Nothing that you'll be able to remember in a couple seconds" Ash replied as he raised a fist to punch the Prince.

Before Ash could finish his attack however he was surprised as he noticed the prince had moved faster and pinned him to the ground already with a knife to his neck.

Ash was in shock. He had never lost a fight before until now and not only did he lose, but he looked like he had no idea what he was doing!

"Learn from this peasant, had I been serious you'd be dead by now. Watch when you speak to your superiors." The prince said cockily as he released his hold on Ash and removed the knife from his neck.

Ash however didn't stand up or even respond to the prince. He laid there on the ground his fingers digging into the dirt as his anger began swelling up.

"Drew stop bullying the weak!" Ash heard a a female voice say from the platform.

The prince now known as Drew just laughed at his sister's words before making his way back to the platform only to hear the voice of the peasant he had just embarrassed.

"Who are you calling weak!" Ash growled as he finally stood up and dusted the dirt from his clothing. "All this Prince has proved is that he can't deliver the final blow, had this been a battle I would have retaliated and he would be dead!" Ash stated his pride blinding him of seeing the superior fighting skills of the prince.

"Peasant don't be foolish, if Drew had attacked you seriously you would be on your way to your grave." The beautiful princess stated in a calm voice.

"Don't bother May. This peasant obviously doesn't know when he is outclassed. I will just end his misery right now." Drew said reaching for his sword that he had sheathed by his side.

The crowd of onlookers gasped as they heard the obvious threat made by the prince. This is where the King decided that stopping this showcase would be smart before his new people think of him as some kind of evil dictator.

"Drew stand down." The King stated calmly, but loudly enough so that Drew could hear how serious he was.

Drew immediately looked at his father, but after seeing the look in his eyes he withdrew any question he was going to ask and quietly sheathed his sword once more.

"And you peasant. Next time you disrespect my family or anyone of a higher status you will be punished. Consider what happened today as a warning." The King said as he directed his attention towards Ash.

Ash said nothing knowing that he would be pressing his luck by insulting the King.

The speech then continued with the King talking about all he would do that the old king failed to do and bring the Kanto region to a "Golden Age" As he called it. Soon the speech was over and the Royal family was about to leave, but the King had one last announcement to make.

"Before I leave I want to invite all the warriors of this town to come to the castle in two months time. There we will select the best to join the royal guard. We are giving you two months to work on any skills that you may be slacking in. Only the best will be chosen and remember this is a chance to fight against the people who want to stop us from reaching Kanto's Golden Age!" The King shouted as the crowd applauded obviously having believed his talk of bringing Kanto to its peak.

Ash however was not impressed and at seeing all the people he had lived his whole life with betray the old King and the old Kanto was just repulsive for him to see. He knew that some of them just like him had lost important people in the war so why were cheering for the man who caused it all. Ash couldn't take it and turned around and began his walk to his tiny hut.

* * *

**~~~~~~~~~5 hours later at the Royal Castle~~~~~~~~~~**

"Can you believe that peasant earlier today?" Drew asked as he and his family sat at the dinner table enjoying the meal the royal chefs had prepared for them.

"Shut up Drew why are you still talking about this." His sister May replied obviously annoyed at her older brother's childish actions.

"Simple. It's because he got away with it! He made us look like pushovers. What kind of Royal family lets a peasant talk to them like that and let him walk away unpunished!" Drew lashed out at his sister.

"The kind that doesn't want to give more people a reason to rebel!" The King stated getting involved in his children's conversation.

"Your father is right Drew. Think about it had you killed that boy it would just add fuel to the fire for the revolutionaries which is not something we need." The Queen said in gentle tone.

"Why are we acting like we are afraid of the revolutionaries! They are the leftovers of the armies I defeated to gain this territory! We could easily take them out." Drew stated getting agitated at his father's weak willed actions

"Not only do we not know where they are located, but killing them may just make matters worse. Drew we don't want to fight forever the best solution would be to compromise with them. We do not want to add fuel to the fire. Doing so would eventually lead to the The Empire's fall." The King stated in a tone that showed that he knew what he was talking about.

"Fine Whatever..." Drew said giving up.

"Thank god. Now you can just forget about that peasant. It's not like you'll ever see him again. I mean he seemed weak I'm sure he won't even have the courage to show up to the try out for the Royal guards after he thinks about today." May laughed as she tried to lighten the mood.

"Yeah I'll admit that's one thing you're probably right about." Drew replied and began eating his food.

* * *

"Gary! Where did you say that revolutionary thing was happening?" Ash asked his brother as they sat down enjoying their meager meal.

"I never said anything about where it was happening I just said that people who want to fight back should join them." Gary replied with not much care in his voice.

"Why do you sound like you don't care about this! Don't you want to get revenge for them killing dad!" Ash yelled quickly losing his temper

Gary suddenly got out of his seat and grabbed Ash's collier. "NO I don't and neither should you! We're both going to respect dad's final wishes by not doing anything against The Empire! I heard what you did today too, do you ever think?! You gave them more then enough reason to kill you! Your lucky to be alive right now." Gary yelled as he slammed Ash against the wall.

"Well he didn't want us to sit and do nothing! You might be able to live that way, but I can't. I WILL join the revolution and I Promise I will kill the Royal Family!

"Ash! Stop being a child! All you will be doing is getting yourself killed!" Gary argued.

"If I do then at least I won't die being a coward like you!" Ash countered

"I'm not being a coward Ash! When Dad went off he made us promise that we would never try and fight the Empire! He died for us and the least we could do is honor his last wish!" Gary stated with his eyes being covered by his light brown hair.

Ash was silent for a couple seconds before he removed Gary's hand from his collier.

"I love you Gary and I love dad, but I can't sit here and do nothing. You have your views and I have mine. I'm sorry for calling you a coward, and I will respect your decision to not get involved, but you have to respect mine as well." Ash said softly to his brother as he walked past him to pack a bag of cloths.

"Where are you going?" Gary asked still in the same place Ash had left him.

"I don't know...But I can't stay here. I will find out about the revolutionary army and I will join them." Ash said as he finished packing.

"I guess there's no point in trying to stopping you huh?" Gary said with a small chuckle

"Well you know me." Ash said with a small smile.

"Well I guess i'll break a promise to dad to since you are." Gary said

"Wait you're going to come?!" Ash said as he begun to get excited.

"No. I told you my place is here, but I have a present from dad he told me not to give it to you until you were 21, but who knows if you'll even make it to that age now." Gary let out a small laugh at his dark joke earning a glare from Ash.

"Shut up, I'll live. So what is it?" Ash questioned

"Hold on i'll be right back!" Gary said as he ran to his father's old room.

After around 10 minutes of waiting Ash begun to get impatient.

"Hurry up Gary! I wanna leave before the revolution is over!" Ash yelled even though it was unneeded considering how small the hut was.

"Coming! Sorry I forgot where it was." Gary said revealing himself from their parents room with a sheathed sword and handed it to Ash

"What is this Gary?" Ash asked in a monotone voice.

"Exactly what it looks like Ash." Gary replied looking his brother right in his eyes.

"This is dad's treasure...He wouldn't even take it to the final battle with him!" Ash yelled in surprise

"Yeah. This sword is legendary. When dad visited from the battlefield while fighting The Empire he brought this back. He managed to steal it from the Hoenn Castle and kept it hidden even from his Superiors." Gary explained

"Wow..." Ash said as he examined the sword. It had a white handle and a light blue blade attached to it. What was the most interesting thing about the sword tho was how slim it was. Most swords were heavy and thick, but this sword was slim and light, but it looked as if it could cut through steel.

"Dad never explained to me why this sword was so valuable, but I know if anybody will be able to put it to use it will be you Ash." Gary said in a proud tone.

"Thanks Gary. Don't worry I'll help restore our country with The Empires own weapon!" Ash stated in a confident tone as he sheathed the sword and placed it on his side and began to walk to the door.

"Ash! I have one more thing to say before you leave!" Gary yelled as Ash walked outside.

"What is it?" Ash asked as he turned around.

Before Ash could even process what was happening. Gary had enveloped him in a tight brotherly hug.

"Don't die man." Ash heard his brother say as he released his grip.

"Don't worry we'll meet again...Bet on that!" Ash said as Gary walked back into their hut and he began his journey

* * *

"Ugh Where the hell am I going!" A tired Ash screamed out.

He had been walking for two hours and still had no clue where he was even headed.

"Maybe I didn't think this through" Ash said to himself as he put his hands on top of his head and looked at the sky not noticing the figure creeping up behind him.

"Take this you royal piece of shit!" The figure screamed!

"Arugh!" Ash screamed as someone slammed their sword on the back of his neck knocking him unconscious.

* * *

"Ughh..Where am I." Ash spoke as he tried to regain vision in his eyes.

"You are at the revolutionary's prison." A dark skinned man stated.

"Wait I'm At the revolutionaries? That's great! I guess I was really destined to come here!" Ash yelled grabbing the bars not really processing the fact that he was in jail.

"You must not understand... you are in jail. You are accused of being a spy for the royal army." The dark man said again explaining why he was being imprisoned.

"Wait... WHAT?! I'm not a part of the Royal army!" Ash yelled at the man.

"There is no use in trying to deny it boy, The sword that was confiscated during your capture has been confirmed to have a white hilt like most Hoenn royal swords. The color of the blade was a bit strange but still more than enough evidence to prove you are a part of The Empire's army." The man reasoned.

"That's the dumbest reason I've ever heard of capturing somebody! Had you ever thought that maybe I stole the sword or something." Ash screamed obviously offended that the man would accuse him.

"Hmm You make a point. I might have been wrong when I attacked you." The dark skinned man stated after a long pause.

Ash couldn't help but sweat drop at the ignorance the man was displaying and was starting to doubt if he was part of the revolutionary army at all, but decided to not doubt him for now.

"Can you let me out then and I can clear up this whole misunderstanding?" Ash asked in the nicest voice he could muster up while talking to a man who had just knocked him out.

The dark skinned man thought for a moment before he obliged and Ash explained how he got the sword deciding that if the man was from the royal army he would have never accused him of being apart of it.

* * *

"Well sorry about the misunderstanding Ash!" The dark skinned man now known as Brock laughed while rubbing the back of his head.

"I would be furious about the situation, but considering you managed to get me to the revolutionary army's base i'll let it slide. That was much easier then i thought it would be. So what city are we in and how long was I out?" Ash chuckled.

"Oh well about that. What i said earlier might have been a bit misleading, this is the rookie camp of the revolutionary base. I am Lt. Brock the rookie trainer for people who want to make a difference." Broke explained

"Well it's not what i was hoping, but before you knocked me out I had no clue were i was going." Ash said with a sigh still happy he made a bit of progress though.

"True, but from what you say it seems like you want to join the Army which is great we need guys like you who can take a sword to the back of the neck and wake up in the same day." Brock laughed.

"Haha funny so how does this rookie camp work?" Ash asked

"Well the rest of the recruits will be here tomorrow and training will begin. I guess i'll inform the General about you so you can be added to the list, but until then you can rest in one of the rooms that we've prepared for the trainees." Brock informed Ash

"Ok thank you, by the way you mentioned that you had my sword, can I have it back?" Ash asked

"No." Brock stated bluntly

"Why not?!" Ash questioned becoming aggravated.

"Simple, You are still not trusted as I cannot confirm your story. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt by giving you as much freedom as i have, but don't be mistaken. Until your identity can be confirmed we will be on high alert around you." Brock said in a stern tone.

"This is stupid, but fine I have nothing to hide so be on your guard for as long as you want. As long as I get to destroy The Empire I'm fine. Now were is my room?" Ash asked with an annoyed sigh.

"Oh follow me!" Brock answered with a smile.

Ash could only cringe at the man's weird mood changes, but decided to ignore it. After a long day all he wanted to do was sleep.

Brock lead Ash to the room and showed him his bed.

"Well the recruits should be here pretty early so try and wake up when the trumpets sound. I'll stop by later and put some clothing for you to wear during training later." Brock said as he left Ash to his thoughts.

"Well Gary I made it. It may not be in the most perfect of circumstances, but at least I'm here and tomorrow it all begins." Ash spoke to himself before he let sleep overpower him

* * *

**~~~~~~~~~~The Next Day~~~~~~~~~**

"AHHH! What a beautiful day!" Ash spoke as he stretched his limbs from a long sleep.

"I wonder if the recruits are here that Brock was talking abut earlier." Ash asked to himself as he slowly arose from his bed.

Ash put on his tunic and pants that Brock had left at some point while he was sleep and made his way outside to see if the other rookies had arrived.

As Ash made his way outside he heard the sound of Brock yelling and decided to run towards that direction and was surprised at what he saw.

"Now do 35 push ups!" Brock shouted at the 3 rookies in front of him.

"Y'all started without me?!" Ash yelled feeling left out as he caught up with the others.

"Oh Ash. I'm sorry I forgot you were here. The rebel army was attacked last night and after the battle was over, most of the rookies chickened out and decided not to even come to camp. So after hearing that disappointing news I kind of forgot you were here." Brock explained

"Hey nice to meet you!" A white haired teen with piercing red eyes interrupted as he walked towards Ash.

"Oh, the pleasure is mine I'm Ash who are you?" Ash introduced ignoring what Brock had said.

"My name is Pride, and this is Dawn and Skyla." Pride replied while pointing to the blue haired girl and a red haired one.

Ash had to double take as he saw Dawn. She was beautiful. If he had to choose he would say that she even looked better then the princess.

"Hi Dawn. Nice to meet you." Ash started putting his hand out for a handshake towards Dawn

Dawn glanced down at the extended hand before she started glaring at Ash.

"Don't try to touch me." She said in a cold voice.

"Wait huh? What did I Do?!" Ash asked in a surprised tone.

"Oh Don't worry about Dawn, she just has a hard time talking to men. I'm Skyla as you've heard. Nice to meet you Ash." Skyla introduced as she took a hold of the extended hand that Ash had that was meant for Dawn.

"Oh. Well it's nice to meet you Skyla I'm glad somebody around here has proper manners." Ash said in a loud voice to make sure Dawn heard him.

Ash directed his attention at Skyla and notice she was pretty beautiful to. Probably not to the extent that Dawn was, but definitely one of the better looking ones and from what he could tell her personality wasn't as screwed as Dawn's.

"Well it's good that you've all gotten to know each other a bit. But now I'm going to need you to LINE UP!" Brock yelled getting annoyed that they started talking without his permission.

"Listen, rookies this is the smallest group I have ever had, but that does not mean the work load will be shrank. One of the most important things that will happen in this camp is to get assigned to a partner. Since there are only four of you there will be two teams of two. One team will be Ash and Dawn and the other Will be Pride and Skyla. These teams are until death! if you have a mission it is the TEAMS mission no exception so get used to your new teammate." Brock stated with authority.

"Wait you just clearly heard that conversation! Obviously Dawn doesn't like me! Why would you team us up together!" Ash yelled at Brock even though he wasn't completely against being stuck with Dawn.

"Simple. It's because you don't get along that you'll make a great team!" Brock explained in a philosophical voice.

"...That doesn't even make sense!" Ash argued " She will definitely leave me on the battlefield if it came down to it!" Ash finished.

"Only if your useless! As long as you don't touch me or hinder me in anyway, I don't care if your my partner or not." Dawn finally chipped in.

"And what if your useless! I mean for god's sake your a girl! How strong can you be!" Ash said turning his attention away from Brock and directed it towards Dawn.

"Fight me and find out!" Dawn countered her competitive spirit overwhelming her usual calm attitude.

"Ash don't do it. Dawn may look like that, but trust me shes not someone you want to fight." Pride warned Ash.

"Ha! Like hell Brock can we have a sparring match?" Ash questioned turning his attention back to Brock.

"Well...Since it's the first day and I'm kind of curious of your skill level... I guess we can let this one happen. Y'all stay here I will go get some practice weapons to use." Brock replied and walked off.

"Ash.. I hope you have the skill to back up your mouth because I can tell you right now Dawn isn't like normal village girls" Pride said as he walked next to Ash.

"Well I hope you at least last long enough to put on a decent show." Skyla laughed

"Jeez can y'all even pretend that y'all have confidence that I can beat her?" Ash replied getting a bit annoyed

"It's because we've both seen Dawn fight and we just met you and to be quest honest you don't look like much." Skyla said to Ash.

"Whatever...You'll see." Ash replied giving up.

"Oh well I picked up this bronze sword for Dawn and this wooden sword for Ash." Brock said as he came running back with the two items in hand.

"And WHY do I get a wooden sword?! I mean it's already clear that I'm the underdog here!" Ash yelled.

"Well you understand the circumstances that you are under so deal with it." Brock explained in a serious tone.

"Wait what are his circumstances?" Pride questioned

"Nothing of your concern rookie now are y'all going to fight or not?" Brock replied while he handed Dawn and Ash their 'weapons.'

* * *

"This is so unfair..." Ash thought as he gripped the wooden sword before he realized an important detail.

Although Ash was a gifted fighter he had never in his life fought with a sword. He had gotten to excited and completely forgot about that.

"Ugh...too late now" Ash thought as he charged at Dawn.

Dawn who hadn't even said a word easily used her sword and directed Ash's attack toward the ground. With a swift motion she used her elbow to knock Ash's body to the ground quickly showing the difference in their ability.

* * *

"Wow.. Looks like he's pretty weak huh." Skyla stated as she sat on the grass with her hands holding her head up.

"Yeah...You would think with all the confidence he had he would at least wouldn't do such an amateurish move." Pride replied while he stood up with his arms crossed.

Brock merely shook his head at the pitiful display. "Maybe I really do have no reason so suspect him." Was the only thought in his mind

* * *

"Ugh.. Lucky shot." Ash stated as he got off the ground. Gripping his sword once more he charged at Dawn.

"The same thing twice? What are you stupid?" Dawn questioned as she prepared herself for Ash's attack

This time he was more prepared for her redirection and when it came he flipped his body in an attempt to land a kick in her face. Dawn seeing this ducked using her quick reflexes and landed a swift series of kicks to Ash's abdomen.

Ash coughed up the a bit of blood as his body felt the effects of the kicks. Suddenly Ash stood up and quickly picked up his sword and slashed it at Dawn only for it to be blocked by hers. Dawn was caught off guard however as Ash overpowered her and managed to land a small cut on her face mostly due to her quick reaction.

"That was surprising. I didn't think you had the strength to overpower me!" Dawn said a bit surprised.

"I guess I'm closer to your skill level then you thought!" Ash bragged.

"I didn't say all that now." Dawn replied as she went on the attack with quick jab with her sword which Ash could barely block.

"Ugh." Ash grunted as he suddenly felt Dawn's foot make contact with his stomach.

Ash flew backwards from the force of the kick and was forced to try to use his sword to slow him down. Ash slammed the wooden sword into the ground only for his sword to snap from the force.

"You have to be kidding me!" Ash yelled right before he slammed into the ground.

Ash couldn't even react before Dawn jumped and came down with her knee into his stomach.

"AHHH!" Ash screamed after more blood came out his mouth.

* * *

"Lt. Brock, don't you think you should stop this? I mean it's obvious Ash isn't a match for Dawn." Pride stated tired of watching such a one sided battle.

"Yeah, I don't think Ash will be pulling out any tricks." Skyla chipped in.

"You're probably right. Seems like he will need the most work I'll give it a few more minutes though. He might pull a rabbit out the hat." Brock replied.

"What can we expect? In fact I'm pretty sure he's unconscious." Pride noticed as he squinted his eyes to get a better view.

* * *

Dawn slowly got up from Ash and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"So I guess you will be useless." Dawn said as she turned around to walk back toward the others.

However before she made it to far from Ash's body she felt a hand grab her arm.

"Huh? You can't possibly still want to fight?" Dawn questioned as she turned around only for her eyes to widen.

Ash was unconscious for sure. His eyes were had no color in them and he had a emotionless stare, completely different from before. Dawn was confused on how Ash had managed to grab her while being this way, but quickly came to the conclusion that he had done it right before the last bit of his conscious faded.

Before Dawn could get Ash's hand off of her however she felt herself being pulled as the unconscious Ash yanked her towards him. Using speed that Ash hadn't shown during their fight, the unconscious Ash quickly delivered a series of quick punches to Dawn's gut and began beating Dawn mercilessly. Dawn being unable to keep up with Ash could do nothing to defend herself.

* * *

"Whoa! Are you seeing this!?" Skyla questioned as she stood up.

"What the hell, how can I not be! I know Ash is unconscious how could he be doing that! I think we better stop this!" Pride yelled as he began to run over to stop the fight.

"Good idea Pride. I don't know whats going on, but it definitely isn't normal." Brock agreed as he used his superior speed to pass Pride and quickly get close to Ash who now was holding Dawn up by her neck.

Brock quickly punched Ash in the stomach forcing him to drop the now beaten up Dawn. Brock looked into the teenagers eyes as he raised for an uppercut but stopped and gasped.

"What the hell is this?" Brock questioned as he looked into Ash's eyes and saw the same thing Dawn had saw just moments earlier. Ash was definitely unconscious, but somehow his body was fighting for him. "I don't know what's going on, but It doesn't seem like Ash has any control of it." Brock concluded before he noticed that Ash had not moved since he was punched.

And as soon as he noticed this the unconscious teen fell to the ground with a thud.

"So what hes weak when he's conscious, but knock him out and he's one of the strongest here." Pride said as he walked over to the injured Dawn. "Are you ok?" He asked offering a hand to help her up.

"I'm fine. I don't need your help." Dawn said in a chilling voice as she stood up on her own and walked towards Skyla.

Pride just sighed as he walked towards Brock.

"Dawn! Are you alright?!" Skyla yelled as she embraced Dawn in a sisterly hug

"I'm fine Skyla, Jeez you know it'd take more than that to hurt me badly." Dawn replied in a tone MUCH different from how she had spoken to Pride and Ash which Brock picked up on.

"Hey Pride. Are Skyla and Dawn close?" Brock questioned after deciding that Ash was no longer a threat.

"Well as far as I know we've all just met pretty recently so I'd say they can't be to close." Pride replied before noticing why Brock had asked. "If your wondering why Dawn is so cold towards Ash and I its because I heard she hates males. I don't know all the details, but she has a deep hatred of them so I'm sure there is a deep reason for it. And after that beating I'm sure Ash didn't exactly gain favor in her book either, but to girls Dawn is the nicest person you'd ever meet it's crazy. That's why I try not to take it to heart when she speaks to me I know she's probably had a dramatic experience." Pride finished showing his maturity.

"Ah...I see I'll have to look into the reason for that.." Brock replied with a short pause before closing his eyes and began to speak again.

"OK ROOKIES! Due to unforeseen circumstances the rest of today is canceled. I will handle Ash and the rest of you can do what you want. Just do NOT leave the base. It is only us here and if you are not accounted for there will be punishment. DISMISSED" Brock yelled changing his personality once again to that of a leader as he grabbed the unconscious Ash and slung him across his shoulder and walked away.

"Jeez. This might be more fun then i thought with an interesting dude like Ash here." Pride stated out loud as he watched Brock walk back inside the base.

"He's not normal..." Dawn replied mostly to herself, but loud enough that Pride could hear her.

"Well obviously I mean I've never seen someone fight AFTER being knocked out and not only was he fighting, but he was fighting better then he was when he was conscious! It's amazing." Pride said as he looked at Dawn.

"At least you know he's not useless I mean had the start of the fight been all he was capable of you would have had a hard time." Skyla chipped in.

"Not true. He still is weak because if he can't fight like that at will he's no help, because if your unconscious you're probably seconds away from being killed." Dawn stated in a dark tone.

"Dawn's right about that. Ash is going to have to be that strong at all times, but I'm sure with the proper training he'll be the second strongest in the revolution You know after me of course." Pride agreed in a cocky tone.

"Please Pride. You're telling me that had that been you in Dawn's place it would have been different?" Skyla questioned with a joking tone.

"Guess we'll never know" Pride stated as he winked at Skyla and began walking to the room he had been assigned.

* * *

"That boy is to cocky for his own good, don't you agree Dawn?" Skyla asked

"Well I guess that's your problem to deal with huh Skyla." Dawn joked with a laugh.

"Ha, mine seems easy when you look at Ash and all the problems he's likely to cause." Skyla replied with a laugh as well.

"Ugh..I don't know why Lt made him my partner. I already can't stand males, but now I have to deal with one as troublesome as that." Dawn answered with a sigh.

"Dawn, I've been wanting to ask why do you hate men so much?" Skyla questioned

Skyla immediately wished she hadn't have asked when she saw Dawn's demeanor change.

"Oh you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Skyla quickly said seeing that obviously Dawn didn't wanna talk about it.

"Thanks." Dawn said with a small smile. "I'm glad your here Skyla, when all the other rookies quit I honestly thought I was going to have to be with guys only while at this camp.. The thought alone gets me angry.." Dawn began clenching the grass she was sitting on.

"Oh.. Well Dawn I'm sure you'll get to know that all of us are here for you including Pride and Ash." Skyla replied.

"I doubt it..." Dawn muttered as she stood up to go clean her wounds and lay down. "I'll see you later Skyla, thanks for talking with me." Dawn thanked as she walked back to her room.

"Jeez.. This is so interesting! Ash and her will provide so much entertainment I'm so glad i decided to join." Skyla muttered excitedly to herself.

* * *

"Gotta inform the leader about this incident. I'm sure he will have some insight on what's going on here." Brock muttered to himself as he threw Ash on his bed and began to write on a sheet of paper the details of what had happened moments ago.

"That should do it." Brock said aloud as he finished the letter before using his two fingers to whistle. "Pidgey!" He yelled

All of a sudden a small fast bird came flying in the room with a tiny little satchel obviously to be used to put notes in.

"Take this to Lance alright?" Brock told the bird while putting the letter in it's satchel. The small animal shook it's head signaling that it understood and took off.

"Guess I better treat this boy and go see if the other rookie is alright" Brock thought as went to go find some bandages.

* * *

**~~~~~ 3 hours later ~~~~~~**

A beaten Ash slowly opened his eyes to find out he was back in his bed.

"Ugh...What happened" Ash said aloud as he grabbed his hurting head.

"Oh I remember that Dawn girl destroyed me!" Ash shouted as the memories flooded back.

"AHHHGH!" Ash screamed as he remembered how pathetic he seemed. "I can't believe there was so much of a difference in our ability." He thought to himself as he slowly lifted himself out of bed.

"Well I guess that just means I have to get stronger." Ash concluded with a smile deciding that sulking wasn't going to help.

Ash walked his way out the room only to be surprised as he bumped right into Dawn.

"Dammit who was that!" Ash shouted before he noticed the blue haired girl in front of him.

"OH it's you Dawn. I was just coming to find you." Ash stated not noticing the bandages wrapped around Dawn as well.

"Here let me help you up?" Ash offered just to get the same cold glare he had gotten before.

"I can handle it. Watch where you going next time. And why were you looking for me?" Dawn questioned deciding that she could at least hear him out.

"Oh yeah I wanted to apologize." Ash stated as he got on both knees and bowed his head surprising Dawn.

"I had no right to accuse you of being weak just for being a girl. Clearly I'm the one who will be hindering us, but as long as were partners I promise I'll get stronger." Ash said apologetically but with a lot of determination.

"Oh..Umm. Thanks I guess. And don't tell me just do it." Dawn replied clearly shocked, but if you listened closely you would hear that she had a nicer tone to her voice than normal

As Ash looked up he saw that Dawn was covered in bandages.

"Wait why are you hurt? I'm pretty sure I barely touched you! Hardly enough to warrant all of those. Don't tell me that red haired girl got so mad that you were beating me so mercilessly that she decided to take revenge. Oh I can't believe she'd do such a thing even though we've just met how sweet." Ash blurted out getting off his knees and becoming over dramatic.

This also surprised Dawn. "So I guess you don't remember huh?" She questioned causing Ash to stop doing his strange movements.

"Remember what?" Ash replied

"Nothing...Just make sure to get stronger." Dawn said as she decided to drop the subject as she walked away.

"Yeah..." Ash mumbled as he decided to go talk to the Lt before he heard his name being called.

"Hey ASH! Where you headed?" Pride asked as he ran up to catch up with Ash.

"Well I was about to go speak with Brock, why?" Ash replied

"Oh then I guess your going to dinner since that's where he probably is." Pride said.

"Dinner? Well I didn't know that. Thanks man." Ash gratefully said as he walked away.

"Where are you going Ash? The dining hall is this way?" Pride asked clearly confused as to why Ash was going to opposite way.

"Oh really? Haha I really didn't know." Ash laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, well follow me man. Were probably the last ones." Pride stated as he began to run to the dining hall

"Really? Ah lets hurry up I'm starved!" Ash shouted as he followed completely forgetting that he wanted to talk to the Lt.

* * *

**Inside The Dining Hall**

"Why can't we eat yet Lt?" A hungry Skyla complained.

"Well Ash is still sleep, but we still have to wait on Pride to get here." Brock explained although he was feeling a bit hungry himself.

"Ash is awake. I ran into him on my way here." Dawn said in a monotone type voice.

"Oh then I guess we're waiting on both of them" Brock chuckled as he heard Skyla groan and put her head on the table.

As if on cue the two boys came running into the Dining Hall.

"We made it! What the hell Pride?! I thought you knew were we were going." Ash yelled as Pride laughed.

"See Ash I never said I knew where it was I just knew it was not the way you were going."Pride explained in a philosophical type voice.

"Glad to see you boys finally made it." Brock interrupted.

"Finally we can eat! Bring the food Lt." Skyla chimed as she picked up her forks.

"Nope." Brock said calmly.

"Why not?!" Skyla complained.

"None of will eat until Ash and Pride do 50 push ups." Brock stated as if it was obvious.

"For what?!" Pride and Ash yelled simultaneously.

"What do you think? You were both late and this is your punishment. Of course your free not to do them and go hungry today." Brock said with a evil smirk.

"But I didn't even know it was time to eat?" Ash argued "I Just woke up." He finished.

"No excuses Ash. NOW both of you If you wanna eat you better get to it." Brock yelled.

After sighing and realizing that they probably weren't going to talk their way out of it the two boys began their push ups.

"This is all your fault Pride. Remind me never to follow you again!" Ash shouted as he finished his 10th push ups.

"Shut up Ash." Pride replied as he completed his 15th

"Ash sure does have a lot of energy for somebody who was knocked out a few minutes ago." Skyla chimed in as she chucked at the boys antics.

"Who cares, It's not like all that energy could save him in battle." Dawn bitterly stated.

"True it'll be the same skill that beat you that saves him." Skyla replied in a joking tone.

"Hmm..." Dawn grumbled showing that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Finished!" Pride stated as he got up on his feet.

"What do you mean finished?!" Ash stated struggling on his 36th one.

"Jeez Ash. You need to get in better shape." Pride insulted as he sat next to Skyla.

"Fuck you..." Ash grumbled as he finished up and hesitantly sat next to Dawn without thinking.

"What are you doing?" Dawn stated without looking at Ash.

"Sitting down what about you?" Ash stated with a smile as he leaned on the table and looked at Dawn.

"Move." Dawn replied simply.

"Ugh come on I don't know what I did to upset you so bad, but I'm sorry I was serious earlier. We're partners and I think we should at least be able to sit next to each other." Ash replied with a bit of annoyance.

"I agree Dawn. I don't know about your past, but eventually you and Ash will rely on each other in the future it is imperative that you two get along." Brock added in a stern tone.

"Why can't you just team me up with Skyla then?! Why do I have to get teamed up with this weak idiot who is more useful unconscious then conscious! Dawn yelled her anger getting the best of her.

"Because I teamed you up. IF you have a problem you can leave. YOU don't have to be here!" Brock replied losing his patience.

Dawn knowing that she wasn't winning decided to just drop the subject not noticing Ash's change in demeanor and how his hair was now covering his eyes.

"I'm not so hungry anymore." Ash suddenly said pushing his plate away from him as he stood up his mood changing.

Pride eyed Ash with one eye as he began his plate with a sigh. He really hoped they fixed whatever problem they had. He was tired of seeing comrades die because of their inability to work together.

Skyla also watched Ash as he left with a bored expression before she looked at Dawn.

"Ash stop!" Brock said with authority in his voice.

"Why? I might as well leave? I don't know why I even decided to come here. Clearly I'm to weak to be here. My own partner says it." Ash yelled

"Watch your tone. If you want to leave feel free to, but know that would you really be satisfied with yourself knowing that you quit without putting in a honest effort?!" Brock bellowed before he glanced at the quiet Dawn and the now silenced Ash.

"I didn't want to have to do this as I thought you two would work it out on your own, but I am assigning you to do TCT!"Brock finished.

"What is TCT?" Ash and Dawn asked at the same time.

"Teamwork Coordination Training." Brock said.

"Teamwork Coordination Training?" Ash asked

"Yes, pretty much you're combat training will be put on hold for 2 months."Brock replied

At the sound of this Ash's eyes widened.

"WHAT?!" Ash yelled

"What do you mean it's put on hold?!" Dawn also asked in a irritated tone.

"Simple you two will be kicked off base for 2 months. But it's not like you won't be back. Instead you two will live in a designated area in the wilderness and live off the land. It'll almost be impossible for you two to survive if you don't work together. As you know dangerous Pokemon live in the wilderness and don't take well to intruders so in a way it will be combat training. You will be given only the necessities and everything else you will have to gather by yourself. I will inform the base about this and they will send someone to watch over you and only if its absolutely needed will that person intervene." Brock explained

"No." Dawn stated simply after hearing Brock's explanation.

"It's either this or you can go back to wherever you came from. Everybody a part of the rebellion has a reason to be here whether it's for revenge or other personal reasons. Trust me that they all will not lose sleep over the death of two children who couldn't work together." Brock replied.

Dawn didn't say anything as she knew going back home wasn't an option, and could also see that there was no way she was getting out of this.

"At the end of this will we be stronger?" Ash suddenly asked

Brock surprised by Ash's questioned paused a bit before he replied.

"If you survive without quitting at the end of this you'll be immensely stronger in both strength and teamwork. For really determined recruits who do this we give the option of them wearing weights during the whole 2 months. The weights are about 20 pounds and there are four of them two for you legs and two for your arms. Of course by wearing these weights you forfeit the small chance you have of surviving this without any teamwork." Brock explained to Ash figuring he was the type who would want to get stronger.

"So where can I pick up my weights?" Ash asked without any hesitation with a smile on his face.

Pride smirked at the reaction while Skyla simply shook her head. Brock smiled as he saw the potential in Ash, but the smile dropped as he glanced at Dawn and saw she was less then thrilled about the activity.

"Dawn since Ash is wearing the weights you can't. I know you two have the potential to be great fighters. I pray that you and Ash work out your problems during this time otherwise serious injury and even death is likely. Especially during the first week since nobody will be watching you until the second." Brock said staring at Dawn.

"When do we leave?" Dawn questioned deciding that arguing wouldn't help all she could do is deal with it. Just like everything else in her life.

"You'll know." Brock said as he stood up and walked out of the dining hall.

* * *

"The hell does he mean by 'you'll know' and then walk out." Ash said as he mimicked Brock's voice.

"Doesn't involve me and Skyla here so I don't really care! While y'all are out struggling to survive. We will become even stronger." Pride said purposely sparking a competitive argument between him and Ash.

"Oh and how do you know that we won't come back and beat your ass?" Ash replied.

"Oh boys stop it. If anything I just hope y'all come back alive. Jeez and here I thought we were going to have a lot more time to spend together. There goes any hope of this place being interesting." Skyla joined in sighing as she thought of how the next 2 months would be.

It suddenly became really quiet, everybody lost in their thoughts. It wasn't long before Pride and Skyla left to do some personal training leaving Dawn and Ash alone in a awkward silence. Before one finally decided to talk.

"Dawn...I know you hate me..I know that you don't wanna work with me, but we both have goals we want to accomplish otherwise we wouldn't have came here and we can't accomplish them dead. So whatever happens lets try to keep each other alive. I promise that I won't let you die." Ash said seriously.

"You should be more worried about yourself then me." Dawn replied as she also stood up and began to walk to her room.

Ash couldn't help, but smile he had somewhat expected that reaction out of Dawn, but he still wanted it to be known.

"Guess I better go get some rest..Who knows when the next time I'll get to sleep in a decent bed will be." Ash said to himself as he also started walking towards his room.

* * *

_~~~~5 AM~~~~_

"Ash. Get up." Brock said in a hard tone as he pushed Ash out of his bed, ignoring the fact that he still had injuries.

"What the fuck. You wanna die huh Gary?" Ash said as he grabbed his now throbbing head as he hit the floor.

"I don't know who this Gary is, but get dressed its time to go meet me and Dawn outside" Brock stated as he left the room.

Ash quickly realized the situation and put on his cloths and ran outside.

"I'm so excited!" Ash shouted clearly not effecting by how early it was.

"God..How can you be so annoying even this early." Dawn stated as she yawned.

"Here Ash." Brock said ignoring the two as he threw Ash his sword that he had confiscated earlier.

"You're giving it back?" Ash asked as he caught it clearly surprised.

"Well I think I can trust you, but even if i didn't you'll need it out there." Brock explained

Ash unsheathed his sword and looked at it. He had really missed it sitting by his side. Even though he had only had it for a short time, it didn't feel right not to have it.

Dawn glanced over and saw Ash's sword. She thought it was a nice sword, but the more she stared at it the more familiar it looked, but she decided to push it to the back of her head as she turned back to pay attention to Brock.

"Also Ash here let me strap these weights on your arms and legs. Training starts here." Brock explained as he wrapped weights around Ash's legs and arms.

As soon as the weights were placed on him Ash felt the change. 80 pounds was not something to play around with.

"This is tough...I can barely move. Forget fighting how can I possibly survive out there?" Ash questioned his face not showing the confidence it had before.

"Simple. Dawn." Brock replied as if the answer was as easy as he made it out to be.

Ash turned his head and looked at Dawn. She looked back at him and smirked, sending a chill down Ash's spine.

"Nope." Ash bluntly said as he turned his attention back at Brock. "That bitch will get me killed as soon as we're left alone!" Ash yelled as if it was obvious.

"He is right you know. I can assure you that keeping him alive won't even break the top 100 on my priorities list." Dawn chipped in not even bothering to lie about it.

Ash looked at her with wide eyes. "What other 99 things to do could possibly be more important to do in a forest!" Ash questioned with shock.

"You'd be surprised." Dawn replied not even granting Ash eye contact.

"Don't be scared Ash. Dawn CAN'T let you die. If you die while in the forest then Dawn will be put on trial for murder. The person who will be watching you will testify your guilt and trust me the jury nor will the judge be sympathetic to someone who let a teammate die." Brock explained ignoring one of the twos many arguments.

"You said so yourself though, the first week nobody will be watching over us. There would be no prove that Dawn let me die if nobody is there to see us." Ash pointed out immediately seeing the threat the flaw presented to his life.

Dawn cut her eyes towards him a bit irritated that he mentioned it since she had also noticed that loophole.

"Well Ash, the best way to notice if she tries to protect you or not is if shes alive." Brock said

This caught both Ash and Dawn's attention.

"What do you mean" The two asked at the same time.

"Well simply If you run into a creature who is strong enough to kill Ash even this state then more than likely the creature is strong. Dawn should be willing to DIE for you and Ash you should be willing to DIE for Dawn as this goes for both of you. If Ash dies and Dawn is able to walk still then it's obvious that she did not try hard enough to protect you. And Ash if Dawn dies and it doesn't look like you tried to protect her then you'd be prosecuted to." Brock explained.

"I see.." Ash said the reality of the situation finally hitting him.

Dawn closed her eyes as she accepted the fact that she'd have to deal with Ash considering she couldn't accomplish her goals in jail or dead.

Brock noticed the fear show on Ash's face as he finished and sighed.

"This is harsh I know, but remember in battle teamwork is everything. It's better to learn this now then on the battlefield. If you two work hard then I promise you that you won't die during this period." Brock said with a smile.

_"Gary...Dad...I made a promise I'd make a change..I'd get revenge for all the pain The Empire has caused...Fear is UNACCEPTABLE!" _Ash thought as he opened his eyes.

"NO need to worry. I have no plans of allowing me or Dawn to die in these woods. It wouldn't change anything in the world if I were to die some meaningless death in the middle of no where. I plan to bring down The Empire and give that rotten Royal family the sharp side of my blade." Ash suddenly shouted his eyes full of passion.

Brock smiled at the display. His eyes showing nothing, but high expectations. Even Dawn showed her surprise at Ash's words as she even let a small smile tug at the corner of her lips.

"That's right! I hope to train you one day Ash! You have the kind of spirit that all of the recruits should have! I know we got off on the wrong foot and I haven't known you long, but don't die out there! We'll be waiting for you two to return. Now follow me!" Brock said as he began to walk towards the forest

Dawn followed right behind as Ash lagged due to the extra 80 pounds he was carrying.

"Jesus.. This is going to be a long 2 months." Ash said irritably to himself as he ran to catch up with Dawn.

* * *

After A hour long walk the trio finally arrived at a gate. Towering behind the gate were many trees. That's all you could see as the forest was much to thick to see the inside of it. Vines intertwined with the gate's bars giving off a vibe that nobody had opened the gate in years. In front of the gate was a old sign that read:

**Viridian Forest - DEATH IS POSSIBLE! Do not enter if you are not prepared to die.**

The fear that Ash was feeling early hit full force as he looked at the forest and read the sign, but he hid it well this time.

"Well you two remember what I said. Here's a backpack. It has all of your basic survival tools inside of it." Brock told the two partners as he handed a bag to Dawn.

"In 2 month's time you should start making your way back to this gate if you can. If you aren't here within a day the person who will be looking after you will reveal himself and lead you here..I wish you luck...Don't die." Brock explained as he turned around and began walking back to base without waiting for a response.

"Well let's go." Dawn said as she took a pocket knife out of the bag Brock had handed her and cut the vines attached to the gate so she could open them and walked inside.

"Damn it. No time to be scared now." Ash stated as he shook his head and followed Dawn.

The first hour of inside the forest was quiet. Neither Ash or Dawn spoke they just continued forward. Ash never being one for silence decided to speak up.

"Where exactly are we headed Dawn?" Ash questioned

"A lake." Dawn replied quickly.

"Why a lake?" Ash asked curiously

"Water." Dawn bluntly said as she continued walking.

"You know you don't have to be so cold. We're stuck together for a month. At the very least we should enjoy each others company." Ash spoke up getting irritated by the girl's short replies.

Dawn suddenly stopped and faced Ash.

"Look. We both know I don't like you. We might be stuck together, but we DO NOT have to get along. So you don't talk to me and I won't talk to you got it?" Dawn yelled before continuing on her path.

Ash didn't even bother replying and for 10 minutes silence returned between the two before suddenly.

"I'm getting way to used to being yelled at by this girl." Ash suddenly spoke out loud.

Dawn ignored him.

"Ignoring me won't make me go away." Ash said out loud again.

Dawn ignored him.

"I just wanna be friends." Ash said expecting to be ignored again.

Dawn suddenly stopped. This time without glancing at Ash she spoke.

"I WILL NEVER BE FRIENDS WITH A MAN! YOU ARE ALL SCUM." Dawn yelled and then began walking again leaving a surprised Ash standing still.

"DAWN!" Ash suddenly yelled out.

Dawn stopped once more.

"Why do you hate men?" Ash questioned wanting to know. "It's not me you have a problem with right. Its men in general. Why?" He finished.

Dawn just began walking again completely ignoring Ash's question.

Ash sighed as he began to follow her again. "I guess i'll wait till shes ready to tell me." He told himself.

* * *

_-2 hours later-_

"I think that's lake!" Ash suddenly yelled as he squinted his eyes as saw a clearing.

"YEP! It surly is!" Ash confirmed as the duo got closer.

Ash suddenly dropped to the ground. Completely worn out from the walk and laid down absorbing the sun's rays.

Dawn wouldn't admit it, but she was happy to they had finally made it to a lake as well, when remembering how early she had been woken up plus the walk she had just made she was worn out. She glanced over at the weights on Ash's person and sat down herself.

"At least physically your not weak. A lot of people can't make that walk at all yet alone with an extra 80 pounds on them." Dawn stated as she walked over to the lake.

Ash sat up as he heard Dawn's words.

"Is that a compliment!" Ash yelled unable to believe his ears.

"Hmm..I suppose so. It isn't anything serious though I just applaud you for not complaining with the weights on." Dawn replied as she took off her boots and placed her feet in the lake.

"Hehe. I gained some points in your book. That's good..Now it's time for a nap." Ash replied as he began to close his eyes.

Dawn glanced over at the sleeping Ash before she directed her attention back at the lake.

"Brock made this seem a lot worse then it actually is. We didn't run into not one pokemon on the way here. Is this really a dangerous forest?" Dawn thought to herself not noticing the rising bubbles in the water.

Dawn being lost in her thoughts failed to notice the rising water until it became very obvious.

"What's going on!" Dawn screamed waking up a sleeping Ash.

"Huh. Whats wrong Dawn.." Ash groggily said before he notice a blue serpent looking creature arise from the water.

"It's a Gyarados!" Dawn yelled as she pulled herself out of the lake and grabbed her boots.

"What do we do!" Ash yelled as he stood up.

"Obviously we have to kill it! Who knows if there is another lake in this forest! I refuse to let some Pokemon dictate where I can or can't be!" Dawn said as she unsheathed her sword.

Ash glanced at Dawn's sword noticing that it was completely blue. He noticed it looked a bit like his sword only the hilt being different, but decided that now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

"Your right about that! How exciting!" Ash yelled as he also drew his sword.

Without any warning the blue serpent fired a blast of water toward the two. Dawn managed to dodge, but Ash was hit slamming him hard into a tree.

"Shit! It's to hard to move freely with these weights on." Ash muttered to himself wincing at the pain his body was now in.

Ash glanced up as he watched Dawn swiftly deliver a fury of quick slashes on the serpent. All of which did little damage.

Dawn grunted as the Gyarados retaliated and and hit her with a strong headbutt sending her flying back, but she still managed to keep her footing.

She looked over at the tree where she had briefly saw Ash get shot to only to see he had disappeared.

"Don't tell me that coward ran!" Dawn yelled to herself.

Gyarados saw the opening Dawn had given him and quickly prepared another water gun and shot it full power at the unprepared Dawn.

"ARUGH!" Dawn screamed as the water blasted her into the ground leaving a imprint.

* * *

Ash looked down as he heard Dawn scream only to see a strong water gun hit Dawn. He closed his eyes as he kept on with his plan.

"Fuck I could have climbed this easily if I didn't have these fucking weights. Don't die Dawn. Just a little longer." Ash said to himself as he continued climbing.

* * *

Dawn struggled to get up, but noticed that the water gun hadn't really did that much damage, the only thing that hurt was the impact. But still Dawn didn't have time to think about it as she eyed the Gyarados.

"No point in worrying about some coward who ran away." Dawn thought as she prepared herself for Gyarados's next attack.

"Come on you fucking snake. I'll kill you!" Dawn yelled as she charged once again at the serpent.

The Gyarados not expecting her to continue fighting was surprised at the sudden movement. Dawn jumped and slashed downwards on the serpent's body this time getting a favorable result as she saw blood squirt out of the now new wound.

Gyarados moaned in pain before suddenly opening it's mouth preparing it's next attack as Dawn landed.

* * *

Ash looked down at the scene finally making it to the top of the tree and gasped in surprise as he watched Dawn deliver a powerful blow to the Pokemon.

Ash's eyes widened as he noticed Gyarados prepared it's next attack.

"That doesn't look like a water gun!" Ash yelled as he realized what the attack was. "Lets do this!" Ash screamed as he jumped from the tree with is sword pointed down.

* * *

"A Hyper Beam! Seriously!" Dawn yelled as she saw the attack. Preparing herself for the worse.

"Don't fuck with me you fucking snake!" Dawn suddenly heard from the sky.

She glanced up and was genuinely surprised as she saw Ash falling downwards.

"Where'd he come from!?" Dawn questioned briefly forgetting the situation, but quickly noticed his plan.

"HA...Guess I called him a coward to soon." Dawn said as she closed her eyes and sheathed her sword. Not bothering to watch Ash's sword impale the Gyarados's head.

The Gyarados didn't even have time to scream in pain before it died. Falling to the ground with Ash still on it.

"Fuck! This is going to hurt." Ash yelled as he mentally prepared for the impact.

The dead body and Ash hit causing a a deafening sound.

"You Ok Dawn?" Ash asked as he got up holding his head, more worried about the girl then himself.

"I'm fine. I would have handled that even if you hadn't done that." Dawn replied as she opened her bag and began to treat her few wounds.

"Yeah.. I know." Ash laughed as he pulled out his sword from the dead pokemon, sheathing it before talking. "Rest In Peace...I'm sorry." Ash said as he dropped to his knees and began to dig.

"What are you doing?" Dawn questioned as she noticed Ash's strange actions.

"Digging a hole. It's disrespectful for us to just leave it's body out here." Ash explained not taking his attention from the task.

Dawn sighed. "Don't be stupid. That's food. Do you forget that we have to hunt our food, In all honesty we lucked out. That Gyarados will last at least a week between both of us." Dawn explained.

"Oh...I guess your right." Ash agreed as he stopped..

There was a short silence before Dawn decided to speak.

"First time killing a pokemon." She asked in a soft tone.

Ash glanced up as he heard her speak. This was the first time she had spoken to him without hostility since he had met her.

"Ah..Yeah, but that's to be expected right?" Ash replied with a small laugh.

"Hmm..Ash not everybody has lived a carefree life like you..Remember that." Dawn answered a bit more harshly, but a lot nicer than before.

"So that wasn't your first." Ash asked deciding this was the time to try and get some information Dawn's past.

"I'm taking a nap Ash. You should rest to. It's impossible to know when we'll have to fight again." Dawn stated ignoring Ash's question as she looked in the bag for the tents.

"Ah..True..Pass me my tent please." Ash replied a bit disappointed that Dawn had broke the mood.

Ash suddenly noticed Dawn throwing everything out of the bag clearly trying to find something.

"Umm is something wrong Dawn?" Ash questioned a bit curious.

Dawn stopped and without looking at Ash said "Not for me, no, but for you there is a problem."

"And what is this problem?" Ash asked narrowing his eyes.

"There is only one tent..."

Ash immediately picked up on the problem as he sighed.

"It's no problem. I used to sleep outside all the time when I was bored back at home." Ash stated with a smile. Knowing full well Dawn wouldn't allow him to stay in the same tent.

"Good." Dawn replied as she finished setting up the tent and went inside for some much needed rest.

Ash simply rolled his eyes and laid on his back and soon sleep took him as well.

* * *

_-7 hours later-_

Ash slowly opened his eyes only to see a small fire started with Dawn sitting on a log eating a piece of Gyarados meat.

"Ugh..What time is is?" He groggily asked.

"How would I know." Dawn replied her normal attitude back in full effect.

"True. Judging from the sun I'd say it's about 4 or 5. It'll probably be dark soon." Ash said after staring at the sky for a few minutes.

"If you knew that then why bother asking?" Dawn irritably asked.

"Don't know." Ash replied as he began to use his sword to cut a piece of meat off for himself as well.

"Since we slept most of the day, we'll probably be up pretty late tonight." Ash started the conversation.

" It's to dangerous to explore so we won't leave this area. We don't know what lurks in this forest so we'll cut down a tree and build a small wall using the wood around this area to keep us safe while we sleep. It was dumb of us to sleep in the open like that earlier as anyone could have killed us." Dawn explained with authority in her tone.

Ash let everything Dawn had just commanded sink in before responding. " Wow, that's smart. Glad to know one of us can keep their head straight through out all of this." Ash joked as he began cooking his piece of meat.

Dawn didn't reply as she finished her food and walked towards a tree making quick work of it.

"TIMBERRR" Ash animated as he watched the tree fall with a loud thud.

Suddenly Dawn's eyes widened as she she heard the thud.

"SHIT I FORGOT THAT LOUD SOUNDS WILL ATTRACT POKEMON HERE!" She yelled ashamed at her stupidity.

"Well we better hurry up and make something out of that tree before they get here!" Ash said as he got up and the two got to work.

* * *

-_One Week Later-_

"Hey Pride how do you think Ash and Dawn are doing?" Skyla suddenly asked as she sat on Pride's back as he did his push-ups.

"995..Ugh.. How would I know I'm sure their fine." Pride grunted as he struggled to get up.

"You've been taking your training a lot more seriously since they left though haven't you." Skyla stated as she continued to watch her partner struggle to get up.

"Heh, I have to. Ash maybe weak now, but I know he's getting stronger and there is no way he is getting ahead of me." Pride responded with confidence.

"You sure do like Ash. Never would have guessed that you've known each other for only a day." Skyla chuckled.

"1000.." Pride finished as Skyla jumped off his back.

"It doesn't matter how long how long you've known each other in friendship, what matters is if you believe that your friend would fight to protect you. And even though Ash is the way he is, I just can't help, but trust that he'd fight for his teammate. Even Dawn." Pride answered wiping the sweat off his face.

"And your thinking that by instinct?" Skyla asked her eyebrow raised.

"That's what I always do. Hasn't strayed me wrong yet." Pride bragged as he smiled. "Besides you saw how desperate he was for Dawn to forgive him. He's the type to fight for friendship." He finished.

"I guess, hey who is that?" Skyla questioned as she squinted her eyes and pointed to someone walking inside the base.

Pride turned his head as he turned towards were Skyla was pointing. "I don't know better go see." Pride said as he began walking towards the unknown person.

"Who are you?" Pride questioned hardening his voice to sound threatening.

"I'm looking for LT Brock." The man stated not threatened by the boy.

Pride immediately realized this man was apart of the army since he knew what class Brock was. "I see. Follow me." Pride said and motioned for the man to follow him.

Pride then lead the man to Brock who was sitting at his table.

"Ah Pride have you finished those push-" Brock started before he notice the man in front of him.

"Third General Steven!" Brock saluted as he recognized the man, but clearly confused as to why such a high class was here.

"Brock I've heard that you've assigned two rookies to TCT. Is this true?" Steven asked.

"Yes sir and Pride you are dismissed." Brock replied as he saluted Pride as well.

"Sir!" Pride responded as he walked out the room only to meet Skyla.

"Whats going on?" Skyla questioned

"A general is here!" Pride replied in an excited tone.

"WHAT?! Why would a general be here?" She said in a surprised tone.

"I don't know. Shss so we can listen." Pride hushed Skyla as they both began to listen to Brock and Steven's conversation.

* * *

"Sir, I mean no disrespect, but why are you here? A simple scouting mission of two rookies undergoing TCT isn't nearly serious enough to draw a general here." Brock questioned clearly confused.

"The letter you sent to Lance. He suddenly said that it was absolutely necessary for a General to oversee this boy Ash and report anything similar to what you reported." Steven replied explaining the situation.

"Ah I see. So Lance must know something about it if he deemed it this important." Brock said with his head down.

"Yes, now i'll be headed towards the forest now. I only wanted to inform you of my arrival." Steven finished as he walked out.

"And by the way I think those two rookies of yours need some punishing. Spying on their superior's conversation is not protocol." Steven said as he walked out and walked passed Pride and Skyla.

"Shit..." Pride muttered as he glanced at the anger on Brock's face.

"I hope Ash and Dawn are doing better then us." Skyla added also scared.

* * *

"Seven days have gone by...Still no sign of civilization. Running low on food. Has the rest of humanity died?!" Ash said out loud.

He and Dawn were currently exploring the forest. They had finish their mini wall around 3 days ago. It was sturdy and kept pokemon out. The only way he or Dawn ran into trouble was if they wondered like they were doing now, but recently it was all peaceful.

"Shut up." Dawn said annoyed by Ash's stupid joke.

"Still being given the cold shoulder by Dawn. Life hasn't changed much." Ash continued.

Dawn was at her limit. She ignored Ash, plus she had even left him to fight a Heracross on his own yesterday of course it was a weak one, but still..He just continued to bother her. What more did she have to do to prove to him that she was NOT becoming his friend and to make matters worse it seemed like Ash was getting used to his weights. He was already keeping up with her even with them on. She just didn't know how she can go seven more weeks like this.

Ash chuckled. He had to admit after the first day he hadn't helped his relationship with Dawn at all. It was the same old thing. Him talking and her being annoyed, but Ash couldn't help it. It was either talk to Dawn or be lonely and that was the last thing Ash had wanted to do.

"Hey Dawn it's getting kind of late, don't you think that we should head back to camp?" Ash questioned noticing the setting sun.

"You can go back if you want." Dawn replied without turning around.

Ash sighed. "You know that I won't. Wouldn't be manly of me to just leave you out here alone. You might get hurt."

That one struck a nerve.

Dawn's anger had finally reached a limit as she took a breath and began to yell.

"FIRST OF ALL I'm STRONGER THAN YOU! OTHER THAN THAT GYARADOS AND HERACROSS YOU'VE LOST AGAINST EVERY POKEMON WE FIGHT AGAINST. I ALWAYS END UP HAVING TO SAVE YOUR PATHETIC ASS. SO GET OVER YOURSELF. IF YOUR NOT HERE, IT'LL BENEFIT ME!" Dawn yelled at the top of her lungs.

This caught Ash by surprise. An the immediate reaction his brain took was to retaliate.

"WELL FINE! THANKS YOU FOR TELLING ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL. JESUS AND TO THINK I THOUGHT WE ACTUALLY HAD A CHANCE OF BEING FRIENDS." Ash countered as he turned and began walking to camp leaving Dawn by herself.

"Damn that asshole! She acts like everything I've done isn't to help her! Not like shes done anything for me. She doesn't even deserve my help. AUGH. Fuck Brock and this dumb idea that we can work together!" Ash muttered to himself as he walked to the camp site.

To clear his mind Ash decided to sharpen his sword as he sat down on a rock set up in their campsite. He grabbed a nearby rock and began the tedious task to irritated to hear the screams in the distance.

-3 hours later-

"The suns set and still no Dawn.. Guess I should go look for her." Ash thought as he watched the small entrance they had made in order for them to get in. "Actually fuck that. She doesn't need my help. She'll probably be here in the morning. Any trouble she ran into I'm sure she can handle it herself!" Ash suddenly yelled convincing himself not to go as he laid down and drifted off into a angry sleep.

* * *

_-2 Am...-_

Ash slowly opened his eyes and used his hand to cover up a yawn. "Damn...Can't get any sleep..." Ash muttered in mild irritation.

"Hey Dawn You back yet?" Ash yelled towards the tent which he had figured hid a slumbering Dawn.

No reply...

"Hey Dawn! I know your mad, but don't ignore me." Ash yelled his anger rising.

Still no reply.

"This girl.." Ash grumbled as he went over to the tent opening it gasping as he saw it was still empty.

"Shit! She still not here?!" Ash yelled in surprised. "She must have ran into trouble in the forest.. God Dammit." Ash concluded as he ran out the tent and grabbed his sword.

"You better be Ok dammit." Ash said to himself as he sprinted out the camp towards the direction he had left Dawn.

* * *

_- A few hours earlier: With Dawn -_

_"Finally that pathetic boy is gone. Jesus why can't he just accept that I'm not going to be his friend." Dawn said out loud in mild irritation as she continued on her path. _

_She didn't have any reason to be exploring she knew it was getting dark as well, but lately she felt as if Ash was rubbing off on her. Although she still gave him her normal attitude even she had to admit that she wasn't as dedicated to being mean. It was hard to be mean to someone who really wasn't doing anything wrong. Ever since the Gyarados incident she had been much more cautious. She didn't want to be in a position where Ash had to save her again at first she thought Ash thought of the idea of climbing and jumping on the tree out of blind luck, but during one their talks...Well not really talks more like he was talking and she picked up bits and pieces she learned that he planned it from the moment he hit the tree. He knew that with an extra 80 pounds the force of the fall would help him pierce Gyarados's skull. Ever since then he had been useless though so she didn't get where he got off saying she needed protection._

_"Men.. They're all the same. Always thinking their better then somebody." Dawn grumbled._

_Dawn continued walking for twenty minutes before she decided that it was time to stop being stubborn. There was no real point in being out here and it was much to dark to be able to protect herself. As soon as the thought crossed her head though Dawn felt a presence behind her._

_Dawn jumped as a huge tail hit the spot that she was once in._

_"Who wants some!" Dawn yelled as she unsheathed her sword._

* * *

_"Dammit this is a huge forest..." Steven said to himself as he pulled his sword from the pokemon's stomach._

_"AHHHH!" Steven suddenly heard in the distance._

_"Guess they ran into some trouble 2... Well I'm sure if Lance is so curious about him then he can handle any pokemon in this weak forest." Steven continued walking leaving a dead Charizard behind him._

* * *

_Dawn looked at the towering creature in front of her with wide eyes..._

_"What the hell!" She screamed as she jumped out of the way of another attack._

_Dawn wiped a bit of blood off her face as a few rocks scratched her while dodging. She gripped her sword with both hands as she took in the creature in front of her. It had dark red eyes glaring that you could see even in the thickest night. It's body resembled a snake, but each different part was a different size all made of a gleaming metal. _

_"A Steelix...Why the fuck do these fucking snakes keep attacking me!" Dawn yelled in irritation at her current situation._

_"There is no way I can beat this thing, I have to escape. Good thing that loser isn't here he would have been nothing, but a distraction in this situation." Dawn said as she dodged another iron tail and attempted to cut it only for her sword to get hit out of her hands due to the hard metallic substance the Steelix's body was made of._

_"FUCK! I heard that Steelix only attacks when somebody has entered it's territory. So all I have to do is run backwards until it deems that i'm not a threat." Dawn thought not concerned about her sword._

_To caught up in her thoughts though Dawn failed to notice the Steelix slam it's hard body on a nearby mountain of rocks._

_"AHHH!" Dawn yelled as one of the rocks fell on her leg caught off guard from the sudden rock slide._

_Dawn bit her lip to in an attempt to ignore the pain, but couldn't stop a few small tears to leak out._

_"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Dawn thought as she looked up at monster attacking her seeing no way out._

_The Steelix glared at the injured Dawn before jumping in the air._

_Dawn's eyes widened as she realized what the pokemon was doing as she tried to roll out of the way._

_The Steelix came down with a hard Body Slam! Luckily for Dawn she had managed to roll enough to avoid death, but her arm was certainly not as lucky._

_"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !" Dawn managed to scream as she felt herself going into shock from the pain from her arm and leg._

_"ASH!" Dawn screamed out desperate for help. She wasn't sure why she screamed his name. He wouldn't be of any help in this situation, but he was the only possibility even though she knew he wouldn't come._

_Dawn slowly felt herself losing consciousness fully expecting to die. She couldn't even think from the pain of all her injuries._

_"I'm sorry mom..." Dawn whispered as she closed her eyes and fell unconscious. _

_The Steelix looked at the beaten girl and decided she was no longer a threat as it slithered away._

_Dawn laid there completely beaten..._

* * *

_-Present time- _

"Dawn where are you!" Ash yelled as he continued running in search for Dawn.

He had been running for the past hour with still no luck. Ash didn't even feel the extra 80 pounds as he ran. He was to worried about Dawn.

"Where could she be!" Ash muttered to himself as he stopped and took a breath. He looked up in the air and bit his lip as he notice the storm clouds beginning to move in.

"Shit! Really God?! Because right now is the right time to bring a storm!" Ash complained sarcastically as he began his search again.

Ash continued to search for another thirty minutes before he finally came a huge pile of rocks. By this time it was raining hard and the sky that was once filled with just a few clouds but otherwise a normal night was now a horrible storm. Ash walked towards the pile of rocks and gasped at what he saw.

"Isn't that Dawn's sword!?" Ash yelled as he ran towards the sharp object.

"DAWN! Can u hear me!? Are you here?" Ash shouted before his eyes widened as his eyes caught a glimpse of a few strands of blue hair under the rocks.

Ash ran to the pile of rocks and began throwing them to the side. This went on for a few minutes before Ash reached the badly beaten girl.

"Oh My God..." Ash muttered as he looked at the girl rain pouring down on both of them.

Ash shook any negative thoughts out his mind as he thought reasonably.

"Ok Ash...This looks bad, but I can't assume shes dead I have to confirm it... OK whats first..." He thought.

"Pulse. Check"

"Heartbeat...It's faint, but it's there."

"I have to get her back to camp!" Ash finally concluded as he let out the breathe he had unconsciously held as he confirmed the girl was still alive.

Ash gently picked up the limp Dawn ignoring the chill he got as he got a close look at the girl's arm and leg.

"This is my fault.." Ash muttered as he began running through the rain to the camp holding the unconscious Dawn on his back.

Ash tried to ignore the weights on his arms and legs as he sped up in order to give treatment to Dawn as quickly as possible.

"Hang in there Dawn..I swear i'll save you." Ash spoke with determination in his face as he ran through the forest as fast as he could.

Dawn slowly opened her eyes as Ash spoke these words.

"Ash...You Came.." Dawn weakly said.

Ash quickly hid the surprise on his face from the sudden voice, but quickly perked up as he realized Dawn had awoken.

"Dawn, your ok..I'm glad. Just be quiet. I'll get you all fixed up as soon as we get back to camp.." Ash said gently as he pushed up the injured girl on his back and continued running.

"Why are you helping me? Cough Cough... How did you know I was hurt? Cough... How Did you fine me?" Dawn questioned weakly coughing up small amounts of blood on Ash's shoulder.

"Just be quiet and focus on surviving." Ash replied bluntly and was surprised as he felt the normal stubborn Dawn wrap her arms around His neck.

"Thank You..." Dawn slowly said as she faded back into unconsciousness.

Ash smiled. "Jeez if this was under better circumstances I'd be happy." He said completely forgetting his anger he held for her earlier.

* * *

After the long run a worn out Ash slowly laid the unconscious Dawn on the ground as he ran to the bag to get some wraps for Dawn's leg and arm. As Ash reached the bag he suddenly felt his legs give out on him.

"Shit.. I'm so tired.." Ash muttered as he ignored the pleading his body was doing for him to stay on the ground.

Ash slowly stood up and grabbed the materials and proceeded to help Dawn. After finishing the task an worn out Ash fell on his back letting his body soak up the rain that was still falling from the sky.

"One more thing.." Ash slowly said as he grunted and stood up and carried Dawn to her tent.

A worn out Ash slowly crawled out of the tent and walked to his set up and walked towards a large tree to cover him from the rain. He laid down and drifted into an intense slumber.

* * *

"Seems like he has everything under control." Steven said with a small smile as he watched from a tree, but narrowed his eyes as he sensed a monstrous presence on it's way towards the camp.

* * *

-3 Days later-

Dawn slowly opened her eyes. She flinched at the pain in her arm and leg as she sat up.

"What happened..." She slowly muttered as she put her fingers through her hair.

The memories from three days earlier came flooding back causing Dawn's eyes to widen. Dawn attempted to stand up, struggling as the pain coursed through her body. As she stood up she noticed that her clothing had been cleaned of all the blood that was on it. She ignored it for the time being as she limped outside of the tent finding a sleeping Ash covered in bandages.

Dawn gasped as she finally took notice of the surroundings. The mini wall they had created had been destroyed and the area that was once full of green grass was stomped on and dead what caught Dawn's attention the most was the huge dead Pokemon laying off to the side though.

"What happened here..." Dawn muttered as she took in all of this. Dawn swiftly turned around as she felt a presence appear behind her.

"Who are you!" Dawn shouted as she attempted to scare the silver haired man who had appeared in front of her all well knowing she was in no condition to fight.

Steven looked at Dawn with a glare causing Dawn to back up a bit before being surprised as he smiled.

"Sorry if I scared you! My name is Steven I've been assigned to look over you in this forest." The man introduced as he held his hands up signaling he wasn't trying to fight.

"Prove it! What happened here!" Dawn commanded gaining a bit more confidence.

"Hmm Well your alive aren't you? Had I been an enemy I would have killed you both by now." Steven explained as he gently used his hand to go through his hair.

"True...What happened here then! Why is Ash so hurt." Dawn demanded once again raising her voice.

"Hmm well that's a long story it all started three days ago." Steven started

* * *

_-3 days ago 1 hour after Ash fell asleep.-_

_A Pokemon bellowed loudly signaling it's presence._

_Ash snapped his head up at the monstrous sound._

_"What is that?" Ash muttered as he eyed the gate of their camp and grabbed his sword._

_Without warning a enormous shot of orange energy shot through the entrance as a green monster made its way through._

_Ash dropped his sword at the sight alone of the monster._

_"A-A-A TYRANATAR?" Ash stuttered as he fell on his butt. "I can't beat that thing.." Ash stated knowing he stood no chance._

_The Tyranatar began charging another hyper beam this time aimed directly at Ash._

_Ash pushed his fear to the back of his head as he moved out the way to avoid the attack. As he dodged Ash remembered that an injured Dawn was still sleep in her tent._

_" I have to get it away from the camp.." Ash thought as he grabbed his sword that he had dropped early. "I can't let Dawn get any more hurt then she already is." Ash finished as he avoided a slash attack from the pokemon and attacked it's arm with his sword._

_Ash flinched as he felt the vibration of his sword hitting the monster's scales. "Shit this isn't going to work!" It's way to durable for this." Ash yelled in frustration._

_Ash jumped away from the pokemon only to be hit by a strong dragon claw opening a bloody gash on his chest._

_"AHHHHHHH!" Ash screamed in pain as he was slung to a tree._

_The Tyranatar looked at the boy._

_"Pathetic."_

_Ash glared at the monster with wide eyes._

_"Who said that!." Ash said his voice cracking from exhaustion as he struggled to get up._

_There was no reply._

_Ash glanced around and saw nobody. He looked back up at the pokemon.."Did it just speak? No it had to be my imagination" Ash thought as he held his bleeding wound._

_"Shit...SHIT" Ash yelled as he leaned on his sword. He was still weak. Although he was now moving normally in the weights with them still on there was no change in his physical strength._

_The Tyranatar charged up another hyper beam and shot it at the weakened Ash. Ash had no time to dodge as he took a direct hit._

* * *

"Wait your suppose to make sure we don't die! Why didn't you step in!?" Dawn yelled at the man as she turned her head glancing at the wounded Ash.

"Well I was, but I was still curious as to what caught Lance's attention..So I waited till the absolute last moment." Steven replied before he began telling the rest of the story.

* * *

_Ash slowly opened his eyes.. He could barely move it was amazing that he was even alive. He was tired, he couldn't move his body. Ash just wanted to lay here and die.. Ash watched the Tyranatar contemplate it's next move before his eyes widened as the Dragon turned towards the tent the injured Dawn was in._

_"STAY AWAY FROM THERE!" Ash yelled his voice cracking._

_The Tyranatar ignored him and continued walking._

_"You'll have to kill me before you hurt her!" Ash screamed once more, but still couldn't move._

_The Tyranatar continued until it was right in front of the tent before it lifted it's leg intending to step on it._

_Ash's heart began pounding as he gritted his teeth. He had just managed to save Dawn and now she was going to die and he had to sit and watch. He couldn't save her..As these thoughts went through Ash head he felt his heart give an irregular heartbeat._

* * *

_Steven stopped as he was about to jump down as he notice the weird aura surrounding Ash._

_Suddenly he smiled. "So this is what Lance was talking about." he whispered._

* * *

_The Tyranatar slammed it's foot down on the tent only for it's eyes to widen as he saw Ash blocking his stomp with his sword._

_"I warned you...I won't let you hurt my friend." Ash said calmly as he forced the Tyranatar to fall over by pushing on his sword._

_The Tyranatar got up and looked at the boy in front of him. It didn't know what to make out of what had just happened. A few seconds ago the boy didn't seem to have enough strength to hurt him at all and yet he just forced him backwards. The Pokemon glared at the boy as he looked into the blue eyes the boy possessed. Where they always like that? No the Pokemon was sure that they were brown earlier, but he wasn't really paying that much attention. The Pokemon pushed these thoughts to the back of it's head as it bellowed loudly to show it's confidence that the situation was the same. The boy didn't flinch though._

_Ash backed up attempting to gain some distance between him and the Dragon. After he did this Ash swung his sword so hard it made an attack even though Ash hit nothing, but air._

_"Air Slash." Ash said calmly as the attacked hit the Tyranatar causing the Pokemon to grunt in pain opening a gaping wound despite how strong the protective scales on the Pokemon were._

_"Leave." Ash stated._

_The Tyranatar scoffed as it began to charge another hyper beam only for Ash to quickly close the distance between them and stab his sword directly in the Pokemon's gut._

* * *

As Steven told Dawn of these events flashbacks came back to a week ago when Ash had blanked out and beat her, but she was certain that he didn't have blue eyes and from what she had just heard he wasn't knocked unconscious when the change happened.

"You seem to know something?" Steven questioned as he notice Dawn go into her thoughts.

"No..I just remembered, I thought Ash had to be unconscious for his change to happen." Dawn muttered.

"So he's done this before in front of you?" Steven asked very curiously.

"Yeah..Once." Dawn replied.

"Hmm I see...Well after hearing Brock's report from Lance I don't believe that it's being unconscious that triggers this change in Ash. It's you." Steven explained.

A small blush appeared on Dawn's face.

"What do you mean me?" She questioned after composing herself.

"I mean that the reason Ash has probably never experienced these changes in his life as far as we've heard is because you weren't there. When he changes you are some how involved. The first time you made him mad, it just happened to be that he was unconscious right after he got mad, but the change still happened." Steven started "When the Tyranatar attacked Ash, he didn't change until you were put in a situation where you would die sparking a strong emotion causing him to react." Steven finished.

"If what you say is true...Why me?" Dawn questioned as she once again glanced at Ash. She was really feeling guilty she had treated him like complete garbage yet he seemingly saved her life twice and even seemed willing to give up his for her.. She hadn't done anything to deserve that.

"I don't know.." Steven lied figuring he'd tell them everything when Ash woke up.

"Ok...By the way Brock told us that whoever was watching us wouldn't reveal themselves, so why are you blatantly not following that order?" Dawn questioned changing the subject not fully believing that Steven didn't know the answer to her question.

Before Steven had a chance to reply however a loud noise was heard coming from the direction were Ash was healing.

"Ugh...What happened..." A weak voice said following the strange sound.

Dawn and Steven both turned their heads to the injured boy holding his stomach.

"Ash!" Dawn yelled with a smile catching Ash completely off guard.

"Who are you?" Ash bluntly said at the smiling girl not believing it was Dawn.

"It's me Dawn? Don't be stupid?" Dawn said a bit confused.

"NO. The Dawn I know would never scream my name in what sounded like joy and she definitely wouldn't direct a smile at me." Ash explained counting on his fingers as he listed different reasons.

"Oh..Look I know How I've treated you, and I want to say sorry!" Dawn said as she bowed. " I know there is no excuse to how I treated you and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me!" Dawn continued sucking up all her pride in order to say this.

Ash looked on in shock, while Steven looked with a small smile, he had also known about Dawn's attitude towards men and was pleased to see that it looked like Ash had gained some of her favor.

"Um Dawn..It's no big deal really..This is awkward..." Ash mumbled as he blushed while waving his hands.

"No! I need to do this. You saved me twice. That's twice as many times as I would have saved you. I just want you to know that your the first male in a long time that I'm willing to give my friendship and my trust to." Dawn finished as she held her head up giving Ash a smile causing him to blush even harder.

However Ash composed himself as he realized what Dawn had said. "What do you mean twice? I saved you once..In fact how are we alive who beat that Tyranatar?" Ash questioned clearly confused before he finally noticed the white haired man.

"Who is he?" Ash asked pointing at Steven.

"Ah nice to see your awake Ash. Now that your both conscious I can explain everything." Steven began catching Dawn's attention.

"What do you mean everything?" She and Ash both questioned at the same time.

"First off I am the third general of The Revolutionary Army the only people above me are the second general and Lance himself. Dawn when you asked why I was here I told you it was to watch over you, however that isn't entirely true. You two are very special and VERY important to the Army and not only am I here to watch over you, but i am here to train you." Steven began.

"A General?! Why is someone so important here to train us? Why are we so important?!" Ash yelled surprised.

Dawn was also surprised, she was speechless.

"Ash a few moments ago you asked who killed that Tyranatar, well it was you." Steven informed Ash.

"No it wasn't I couldn't even harm that creature, I remember it about to kill Dawn and then I blacked out." Ash replied confident that he hadn't killed the Pokemon.

"Like I just said YOU killed it. Dawn told me there was an incident before were you would 'black out' and all of a sudden your enemy be defeated do you remember this?" Steven questioned.

"Well I remember fighting Dawn and being knocked unconscious and when I woke up somebody had injured Dawn, I assumed she got in a fight with one of the other rookies." Ash explained.

"No. You were the one who did that to me. When you were knocked unconscious you suddenly showed amazing abilities I couldn't even touch you." Dawn chipped in hoping to find out whats going on with Ash.

Ash turned his head at Dawn. Was he really the one who had hurt her like that. Ash felt nothing but regret as he learned this.

Steven didn't give Ash enough time to dwell to deeply on it however as he started speaking once more.

"Yes, Ash so as you've learned when your in a bind you go into a state where your abilities are pushed a lot further than what they usually are, however this is NOT true." Steven stated causing Ash's eyebrow to raise.

"As I've told Dawn what triggers this change is her, but what I didn't tell her is why." Steven finished.

"Well tell us then!" Dawn yelled tired of the suspense.

"Dawn or should I call you The Princess Of Sinnoh and heir to the throne." Steven suddenly said surprising an already shocked Ash even more.

"WHAT?!" Ash gasped.

Dawn began shaking as Steven said these words and tried to get up only to have Steven grab her arm and force her down.

"Worry not. This information has not been leaked anywhere, but as I was saying you know the attack Hoenn made on the Sinnoh castle. That attack was nothing more than a ploy. The real goal was to kill you." Steven revealed shocking Dawn.

"That's a lie! Hoenn attacked in order to destroy Sinnoh's resolve. If they had managed to take out our capital the people of Sinnoh would lose their will to fight." Dawn yelled her emotions overflowing. This was not a topic she wanted to talk about.

"Wrong. The only person who knew about this ploy other than us was the Queen..Your mother." Steven spoke.

Dawn's eyes widened.

"Your mother was a brave woman..She gave her life to protect you.. Had you died that day then we would lose all hope." Steven continued taking Dawn's silence as a signal.

"Why..Why was it so important that I lived..." Dawn whispered out.

"Hoenn wanted to kill you because of your ability to unlocked the Chosen One's aura is their greatest threat. As you know we all have a certain amount of aura and it can be used for different things, but The Chosen One's aura is different. If he learns how to control it he has the potential to be the strongest man alive capable of defeating the Hoenn forces and leading us to freedom." Steven finished.

"So that 'Chosen One' is me?" Ash questioned putting all of the pieces together.

"Yes, Ash you are the Aura user that will lead us to victory in this war." Steven explained.

"That's a lot of expectations for somebody who doesn't even know how to use Aura." Ash said as he looked at the silent Dawn who had her hair covering her eyes.

"Which is why I'm going to train you. As you are now you're useless. Hoenn leaders only know of Dawn's identity so we're lucky that we were able to confirm yours before they could. Had they found you, you'd be as good as dead unless you have a grasp on your Aura." Steven said.

Dawn was silent as Ash and Steven spoke letting everything that she had just learned sink in. Her mother had died for her. Dawn closed her eyes tightly as she remembered her mothers last words.

"Find him Dawn..Don't let what happened hinder you.. Our Savior needs you."

Dawn didn't know what to make of those words then, but now it all made sense. She was destined to find Ash to help him destroy The Empire.

She sat there mentally accepting her mission. Then she glanced at Ash as he continued to talk to Steven.

"If anything If I'm forced to work with a man I'm glad it's one like him." Dawn whispered to herself her opinion of Ash completely changed from what it was just a few days earlier, finally she stood up surprising both Ash and Steven.

"Well if your going to train us then let's get to it! The Empire isn't going to wait on Ash to get stronger before it continues killing people." Dawn spoke with determination causing Ash to smile.

"Damn right! Who cares about all of the formalities! All that matters is that we get strong and show them that this world isn't theirs to do as they wish!" Ash agreed as he stood up as well causing Steven to laugh.

"Your right! Well We'll begin physical training in a few days after you two heal, but one thing we can do now is determine what your element is." Steven stated with a chuckle.

"Element? What do you mean?" Dawn questioned.

"Well technically this mostly applies to you Dawn. Legend has it that the Chosen one can use all 17 elements, but even he has a basic element that he will be the most proficient at using. For you however Dawn your type will be pretty much all you can use. The types are." Steven began.

"Fire"

"Water"

"Electricity"

"Dragon"

"Bug"

"Dark"

"Flying"

"Grass"

"Psychic"

"Ground"

"Rock"

"Normal"

"Fighting"

"Ice"

"Poison"

"Steel"

"And ghost." Steven said one by one.

"Most people are normal type users, which is known as the weakest of the 17, I really hope that neither of you are that." Steven finished with a small joke.

"Well how do we know what kind of aura we possess?" Ash questioned and the look on Dawn's face showed she wondered the same.

"Simple, the most basic technique of an Aura user is Aura Capture. Let me demonstrate." Steven said as he pointed his finger which was now glowing blue.

Without any warning a beam of blue light shot from from the finger and when the light vanished a strong blue Pokemon was in it's place.

"Wow! What's that? How did you do that?" Ash beamed getting excited.

"Let me introduce you to my first Pokemon Metagross. When you meet a Pokemon that is of your aura type you will have a strong urge that it belongs with you and it'll almost be instinct to catch it. Which Pokemon it is isn't relevant what matters is the type. I was bonded with Metagross signaling that my aura is a steel based kind since Metagross is a steel type." Steven explained as he pointed at Metagross and shooting the blue light once more causing the Pokemon to disappear.

"That's cool and all, but what do you mean by capture? How are you making that Pokemon appear and reappear like that?" Dawn questioned

"That is aura capture. It captures the Pokemon of your aura type and holds it inside your body. The stronger the aura user is the more Pokemon he can capture the limit being six." Steven replied.

"So once we learn this technique we can only use it on Pokemon of our own type?" Dawn asked.

"No. Most people choose to, but only the first Pokemon has to be of your aura type. The rest can be any type you want, however if the Pokemon is your type then that Pokemon will be a lot stronger than the ones that are not." Steven answered.

"Well how will we find a Pokemon that matches our type?" Ash asked becoming impatient with all of the talking.

"Look around you. In this forest every type of Pokemon lurks somewhere. A tip is that whatever Pokemon you are destined to catch it won't hate you. It will feel that it belongs with you as you will with it although some may be a bit stubborn and still be aggressive." Steven explained.

"Wait! I've seen many fighters during this war and I've never seen the fighters using Pokemon to fight." Dawn suddenly stated.

"AH. That's because most aura users once they capture their Pokemon they never release it. You can't fully use your aura unless your first Pokemon is infused with you. The people who choose to capture more than one type of Pokemon are the ones you will see using outside of their bodies, but like I said it's extremely rare." Steven answered.

"So in actuality whatever Pokemon we catch will probably never live outside our bodies again?" Ash questioned not really liking the idea.

"Usually that's the case however some users like to let their Pokemon out when they aren't using it, but in these times it's dangerous since The Empire's army tend to kill anybody they see who have control of their aura not a part of them and controlling a Pokemon is a dead giveaway." Steven replied with sorrow in his voice.

"It can't be helped. Once we destroy The Empire, users around the world will be able to let their Pokemon out without risking their life. Right Ash." Dawn said nudging Ash to raise his spirit which worked.

"Yeah Dawn's right. It doesn't have to stay that way forever, but let's start!" Ash yelled

"Great! The easiest way to do this is to try and determine your type before you go Pokemon hunting so you know what your looking for and don't have to risk running into a Pokemon that isn't your type." Steven began.

"Wait I thought we wouldn't learn our type until we found a Pokemon of that type though?" Dawn questioned clearly confused.

"Yes, but one thing I forgot to mention is that whatever your aura type is that type you will be stronger against so for example. If Ash's aura type is fire then if he got hit with fire he would barely feel it unless it was just that powerful." Steven finished.

"I don't like were this is going..." Ash muttered as he guessed what Steven was about to have them do.

"Yep, my Metagross knows a few different types of attacks even though it's steel. If we're lucky one of those attacks will be your element if not we'll have to wait until your healthy enough to find your Pokemon yourself. So let's begin with you Ash." Steven said with a smile as he called out his Metagross.

"Wait why me?! Clearly I'm more wounded?!" Ash yelled clearly not wanting to experience pain.

"Well I assumed you'd be excited to become stronger." Steven said with a shrug as he turned to Dawn.

"Wait! Damn right I'm ready give me the best you've got." Ash yelled falling into Steven's trap causing Dawn to laugh.

"Good! Well Metagross attack Ash with a small ember." Steven commanded.

Ash yelped in surprised as the fire attack hit him leaving a smoldering mark on his arm.

"God damn it! He said small!" Ash yelled as he blew on his burn.

Steven chuckled as he mentally checked off fire.

This went on with many different elements and many different painful experiences for Ash before they finally got to electricity.

"So this is the last type that my Metagross can use so let's pray that it's this one. It would be really lucky considering this is one of the rare ones." Steven explained getting a bit irritated that Ash wasn't anything that they had tried so far.

"God, just get it over with..." A weak Ash muttered still hurt from the other attacks he had suffered.

Dawn by this point had been very amused.

"Metagross use thunder!" Steven commanded.

"THUNDER? Can't you use like shock or someth-" Ash started before being cut off as a huge bolt of electricity hit him.

"Oh shit I forgot!" Steven yelled as he told Metagross to stop the attack.

Dawn got up clearly worried as did Steven as they ran to the smoke that was now covering Ash.

"Ash are you alright?!" Both Steven and Dawn yelled.

"Damn it! Steven are you trying to kill me!" They heard a voice yell from the smoke causing both Steven and Dawn to smile.

"Guess we know which element you are!" Steven said as he wiped the bead of sweat that had formed.

"What if I hadn't been! That attack could have killed me!" Ash yelled still clearly annoyed as the smoke cleared.

"We would have just found a new chosen one." Dawn joked with a small laugh.

Ash sucked his teeth before he replied.

"I see even the nice Dawn has her mean moments." Ash sulked as he patted Dawn on the shoulder.

"You should be happy. Most people would kill to joke around with me." Dawn cockily said.

"Oh yes Miss Queen of Sinnoh." Ash sarcastically said. "Your a normal girl to me, not to important." Ash replied while sticking out his tongue.

Dawn inwardly smiled at this comment, she was a bit worried that Ash would treat her different after learning of her heritage but clearly he didn't care.

"Well I'm glad you two are getting along, but now it's Dawn's turn." Steven interrupted.

"Oh yeah! It's time for her to experience some pain now!" Ash chuckled darkly causing Dawn to glare at him.

"Steven, when I think about it I'm pretty confident that I know what my element is already." Dawn suddenly said sticking her tongue out to a wide eyed Ash.

"No you don't! Don't try to avoid this!" Ash yelled.

"Dawn what makes you believe that you know your element?" Steven questioned ignoring Ash.

"Well when me and Ash first got here we were attacked by a Gyarados. It hit me with a strong blast of water, and it didn't really hurt." Dawn explained as she thought about the attack.

"Hmm that does sound like your element is water, but we have to test it..." Steven said after thinking for a brief moment.

"Metagross use hyper beam on the lake. Lets see if we can attract some big fish." Steven commanded pointing at the lake.

"Wait that's a bit rash isn't it!" Dawn managed out as the Pokemon did what it was told.

Ash could be heard laughing in the background as Dawn mentally prepared herself for whatever would come out the water.

Suddenly the water began to rise causing Dawn to tense up.

"Shit it's probably another Gyarados!" Dawn yelled as she tried to run for her sword only to grunt in pain as the injuries she had sustained acted up.

Steven looked on in anticipation at the rising water.

Suddenly a small blue creature popped out of the water causing shock to the group. Even Steven was a bit caught off guard at the size of the pokemon.

"Piplup." The water Pokemon said as it landed and cockily beat it's wing on it's chest.

Ash stared at the Pokemon before his face broke out into a smile and then into a full blown laugh.

"I can't b...reath... .God. Dawn you are amazing. That's one scary Gyarados!" Ash managed to laugh out as he clutched his stomach.

Dawn face was beat red as she looked at the Pokemon and heard Ash's laughter, she glanced over at Steven only to get more pissed off as she realized he was stifling his laughter.

"Shut up! Piplup come on gimme your best shot!" Dawn shouted towards the Pokemon as she bent down to be at eye level with it.

Steven suddenly stopped laughing as he saw Dawn bend down.

"Dawn don't let it's size fool you! Piplup are known to injury humans since most assume they are harmless!" Steven warned, but his warning came to late.

The Pokemon had already begun charging a powerful water gun and had shot it straight at Dawn pushing her back into Ash.

"Oof!" Ash grunted in pain as Dawn hit him causing his old injuries to show that they were still there.

"Ash! Dawn! Are Y'all alright?" Steven asked as he ran to where the two teens had been thrown.

"Yeah. I'm fine. What about you Dawn?" Ash managed to get out as he breathed in and out to try and let the pain of his wounds go back down.

"Yeah.. It didn't really hurt. It just had a lot of force behind it." Dawn said as she stood up.

The Pokemon began to laugh at it's accomplishment before it ran back into the water.

"That is great! So it seems like we know your abilities." Steven said as he clapped his hands together.

"So my aura is electricity and Dawn is water?" Ash added.

"Correct. Before we go try to catch a Pokemon however I think it will be best if we learn the basics of aura." Steven stated

"Wait I thought you said we couldn't use aura without a pokemon captured." Ash stated getting confused again

"True, but that is only elemental aura, the basics of aura you can use without a pokemon and it will probably be a lot easier to pick up on the advanced stuff if you know the basics. So rest up and i'll use my aura to heal you guys up as best as I can so tomorrow we can start."

"Yes sir." The two teens saluted getting serious.

* * *

**Well guys I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 of The Empire I decided to give a LONG first chapter, but the rest of the chapters probably won't reach this length. This is a AU clearly and it's going to be a crazy ride. Leave comments about how long the chapters should be. I can make them long like this one, but that will slow my update speed or I can make them about 5k a piece Idk I already have about 10k written for next chapter so look forward to that after I get some feedback on this chapter. **

**I have made a lot of changes back and forth. I've tried to find all my mistakes, but I am human and they are there sometimes I even use a character name that isn't in the story this is because that character was originally in the story, but I decided that they wouldn't be. If you happen to run into times like that during this chapter just use common sense to understand what I meant although I'm pretty confident that I corrected all of those mistakes.**

**For those of you waiting on a update for my other stories I am sorry to say that they are on a hiatus for now as I wanna focus completely on this story as it will be my longest and best yet.**

**Flame if you want as I will take it as constructive criticism ! **

**Well Enjoy!**


	2. Training and a Friendly Duel

**So I hope you guys enjoyed my last chapter! So many places I can take this fic, I love it. Lol. Thanks for all the good reviews to! I'm glad some of you find it interesting I promise it's gonna get better. Well enough of me talking here is chapter 2 of THE EMPIRE!**

* * *

"WAKE UP ROOKIES!" A worn out Steven yelled throughout the Trio's small campsite.

Ash groaned as he heard the annoying general shout.

"Five more minutes.." Ash sleepily said without opening his eyes.

Steven sighed as he walked over to the boy and firmly planted his foot on Ash's stomach in order to wake the younger male up.

"The Empire isn't going to wait for you to get a few extra minutes of sleep, so get your lazy ass up." Steven yelled slightly irritated

At hearing this comment Ash snapped up from his dirt made bed wide awake.

"Yes sir! I apologize for my actions!" Ash saluted getting serious.

"Great now where is the princess." Steven said with a small smile unable to contain his excitement. He loved training new recruits.

As if on cue the tint open revealing the beautiful blue haired girl.

"No need to worry about me sir, I won't be lazy like the snorlax over there." Dawn stated as she walked up out of her tint only to take notice of the transformation of the area they were in.

"What is all this?" Dawn questioned causing Ash to finally take notice of the changes around him.

Ash then looked at the general who was standing with an obvious look of pride on his face. "Well it took all night to make, but after healing you guys I took it upon myself to make us a training area." Steven explained.

Dawn and Ash looked in amazement at the small area they had claimed. Using just the trees around him Steven had taken a normal forest and turned it into something incredible.

"Wow..." Ash said stunned respecting Steven a lot more than he already had.

"Yes, but no time to be impressed we are going to start with the basics of the basics. Which is making your aura visible." Steven stated.

"How are we going to do that?" Dawn asked.

Steven smirked at the girl's question. "Well this is going to be boring, it might even take the whole day. Pretty much you have to look deep inside yourself until"

"Like this!" Ash shouted interrupting the general as he fist glowed a blue color.

Steven looked at the boy surprised. "Uh..Yeh like that.." Steven muttered as he turned his head to Dawn only to see that she had also managed to make the blue orb appear in her hand.

"If this is the hard part in controlling aura, then this is gonna be a piece of cake." Dawn said a bit disappointed that their training wasn't going to be challenging.

Steven picking up on her tone decided to speak.

"Oh don't worry, the next part will almost certainly take everything you have." Steven said confident that they wouldn't get past their next training so easy.

"So what is it?" Ash questioned getting impatient, he was ready to get stronger.

"Follow me." Steven said as he motioned Ash and Dawn towards him as he walked to two tree stumps carved into the shape of a needle.

"Uh..What is this?" Ash asked curious about what use a carved trunk could possibly have.

Dawn also looked as if he had the same question.

Steven chuckled as he turned to the duo. "Well simple you are going to do 1000 push ups." Steven said with a smile.

"Push ups? Isn't that a bit... you know ordinary?" Dawn questioned also a bit confused as to why they would need the tree stumps to do push ups.

"Oh you'll wish that these were ordinary push ups." Steven said as he walked closer to the stump.

The general then jumped on to the stump's sharp carved point and gently landed with one finger holding him up so his feet were pointed to the air with a small blue light emitting from the finger.

"Woah! What is that!" Ash yelled impressed at the sheer strength of the general to be able to keep himself balanced like that.

Dawn also looked on with wide eyes. "Maybe this won't be as easy as I thought..." She thought with a determined smirk.

"Simple. As you can see my aura is actually holding me up, not my physical muscles." Steven explained as he started doing his push ups with ease.

"You are to control your aura to the point where it's concentrated at one point on your finger. It can't be too much or to little otherwise you will fall." Steven started. "And the most important rule of this training is that the 1000 push ups, must be done in a row. If you fall you must start over." Steven finished smirking at the look of disbelief on the two teenager's faces.

"What are you waiting for? Chop Chop" Steven beckoned as he jumped off the stump.

Dawn was the first to snap out of her disbelief and slowly walked up to her stump, feeling determined she jumped and pushed her aura to the tip of her fingers as she landed on the sharp tip of the stump. It wasn't as pretty as Steven's, but amazingly she managed to keep her body up her aura had uncased her entire hand showcasing the difficulty she was having controlling it.

"Good, now slowly begin. Take your time." Steven encouraged while also turning towards Ash who had just began to walk to his stump.

"Alright if Dawn can do this I can to!" Ash yelled full of confidence.

Ash jumped in the same manner as Dawn and pushed his aura to his fingers as he landed.

"I did it!" Ash shouted excitedly as he balanced on the tip of the stump.

"CALM DOWN ASH!" Steven suddenly said, but it was to late.

Ash's inexperience lead to his excitement ruining his concentration with his aura. Ash's finger slowly stopped glowing blue as Ash fell onto the tip of the stump dodging it enough so it would only leave a small scratch on his cheek.

Dawn chuckled a bit before continuing what she was doing. "10" She spoke as she lifted her body up once more.

"Ugh..this is going to be tough." Ash mumbled as he slowly got back on his stump.

Steven smiled as he watched the two teenagers go to work.

"These two will definitely end The Empires reign." He thought confidently.

* * *

*******Inside the Royal Castle*******

"Has there been any leads on the rebellion General?" Drew questioned to a purple haired young man.

"No sir...They are remarkably good at hiding." The man replied as he bowed to the Prince.

Drew bit his lip in irritation as he heard those words.

"Find them Paul! You are my top General, when I deploy you I expect results! Not excuses" Drew yelled losing his temper.

"Yes sir. I apologize, I'll get right on it." The man now known as Paul said as he stood up and walked out the room.

May who had been watching the altercation decided to make her presence known.

"Why are you so obsessed with finding the revolutionaries? Didn't dad say we aren't trying to confront them?" May questioned.

Drew didn't even look at his sister as he replied.

"Dad is weak...With the mindset that he has, The Empire will not last much longer. The key to having a successful reign is to have everything under control. With these revolutionaries running wild we will never have complete control. Since he is to scared to destroy them..I will." Drew replied in a dark tone.

"I see...What about that Blue haired girl? What's the latest on her?" May asked knowing how big of a threat she posed to their cause.

"...There has been no sighting of her since she escaped our attack on Sinnoh. Either shes dead or shes found a damn good hiding spot, but don't worry if she is still alive we will find her and crush her." Drew said with clenched fists.

"I think you should make her your number one priority Drew." May boldly stated.

There was a short pause before the Prince replied.

"And why is that?" Drew questioned slowly.

"You and I both know that if she finds the Chosen One, those two alone pose a greater threat then thousands of the revolutionaries fighters." May said in a serious tone.

Drew knew she was right, but his pride refused to allow him to admit that his sister had a valid point.

"Don't worry about these matters. Leave them to men." Drew arrogantly said as he left the room.

May merely sighed as she watched her brother leave.

" I can sense a storm approaching" She whispered as she also began to walk out the room.

* * *

*******One Week Later*******

"971"

"972"

"973"

Ash's body was shaking, he had barely gotten any sleep, since starting this training. He had started over more times then he could count. But he wouldn't give up. This was going to make him stronger.

"951"

"952"

"953"

Dawn was right behind Ash. She wasn't in any better condition as he. Her body just wanted to give out, but if she allowed that to happen she would never forgive herself. She was going to be strong.

"I won't ever quit mother." Dawn gritted out as she kept going.

Steven watched in amazement he was pretty sure they were both about to reach 1000 this time. He was honestly surprised usually this takes a good two weeks for trainees to do and most gave up half way through, but these two had never given up even when being pushed to their absolute max. He was proud and was definitely ready to begin the next phase.

"1000" Dawn said as she released her aura allowing herself to fall, not worried about the spike at the edge of the stump. Luckily Steven caught the tired girl and sat her on the ground.

"Thanks Steven." Dawn weekly muttered.

"How the hell did you finish before me" Ash managed to get out as his he hit number 993.

"Guess I was more determined." Came the weak reply from the girl as she closed her eyes for some rest.

It wasn't long after that Ash finished his 1000 and allowed himself to fall. Unfortunately however he did not recieve the same treatment as he fell straight towards the tip of the stump causing another cut on his face.

"Jeez..Thanks for the help Steven." Ash muttered sarcastically.

"Sorry Ash I thought you could handle it." Steven replied as he healed Dawn.

"Yeah sure you did...Picking favorites and shit." Ash said under his breathe.

"I heard that." Steven stated as he walked over to Ash and began healing him as well.

"Well whats next?" Dawn questioned feeling a lot better now that she was healed.

"We are taking a break." Steven answered as he still focused on healing Ash.

"What do you mean a break? The Empire isn't taking a break!" Ash yelled annoyed as his energy recovered.

Steven stood up as he finished healing Ash.

"Your misunderstanding what you're taking a break from is using your aura. You've both been using it almost nonstop this past week, if I made you do any more aura training it would do more damage then good." Steven explained.

"Then what are we going to do?" Dawn questioned

"Well you Dawn get to watch this part, but Ash here is going to train his swordsmanship since I was informed his skills are below average." Steven said with a smile.

"And how am I going to do that?" Ash asked not bothering to take offense to the comment considering it was true.

"Simple. Follow me" Steven said as he lead the two rookies to a large circle.

"This is what I call the training circle. You will be in the circle until you have mastered the art of swordsmanship." Steven began as Ash and Dawn looked intensely.

"We don't have time to stand in a circle! The EMPI-" Ash began

"THERE IS NOTHING outside this circle! Do you understand? The Empire does not exist until I say it exist." Steven yelled not allowing Ash to finish his statement.

"As your skill with the sword increases the circle will progressively get smaller bringing you that much closer to your retribution." Steven finished.

"I like that part..." Ash said to himself

"Well lets begin." Steven said wasting no time as he handed Ash his sword.

Dawn slowly sat down on a rock as she watched Ash train. He clearly had no idea how to handle a sword considering how easily Steven was swatting his sword out of his hands, but slowly, but surly Dawn could see the improvement.

* * *

******* 4 weeks Later *******

Ash swung his sword to match each of Dawn's blows.

Dawn couldn't believe just a few weeks ago, the boy couldn't keep up with her and now she was being pushed back and she had been training her whole life!

Suddenly Ash swung knocking Dawn's sword out of her hand and holding the tip to her neck.

"So guess I'll be useful after all." Ash cockily said as he rose his eyebrow and removed his sword from Dawn's neck.

"I'll give you that much." Dawn replied not wanting to blow up Ash's ego as she walked away from the now small circle.

Steven watched impressed.

"Ash your done come out of that circle." Steven yelled out gaining Ash's attention.

"Finally.." A remarkably different looking Ash said, his hair had grown causing some of his bangs to fall over his eyes, but the main difference was that he had grown a few inches during his time in the training circle.

"Well Ash I caught a few Magicarps that we can eat I know your tired of eating those pieces of bread I would hand you in the circle." Steven laughed as he saw stars appear in Ash's face.

"Finally real food!" Ash yelled as he walked to the campfire walking out of the circle for the first time in a month.

"How much longer before we're set to return Steven?" Dawn asked as she came and sat next to Ash by the campfire.

"About a week in a half, enough time to capture your aura element and learn how to use your elemental aura. You'll have to train it on your own though as you do missions for the revolutionary army." Steven Explained.

"Awesome. Hehe Pride won't know what hit him when I come back this improved." Ash said getting excited.

"I wonder how he and Skyla are doing anyways." Dawn wondered out loud.

"I'm sure their getting strong as well, Brock is a great trainer." Steven said as he stood up.

"Alright y'all to lets fine you a pokemon!" Steven finished his voice full of excitement.

"Lets do this!" Dawn and Ash both said standing up as well.

* * *

"Steel body" Pride said in a monotone voice.

"Mega punch!" Brock yelled as he punched the white haired boy in the face.

"Gah!" The boy screamed as he flew into the walls of the camp.

"Come on Pride! Your natural aura is Steel, and you've already combined with your Aaron you should be able to take this kind of hit and feel nothing!" Brock yelled at the red eyed teen.

"Well fuck! Maybe if you would hold back a little." Pride muttered as he stood up and wiped the blood trailing from his mouth.

"Air cutter!" Skyla said as she waved her arms in the air causing strong winds to attack Brock.

"Harden." Brock said calmly as the air hit him doing no noticeable damage.

"Bullet punch!" Pride suddenly said as he ran toward Brock, only to have his punch caught with no issues at all.

"Come now, be serious."Brock said with a smile before his face hardened.

"Headbutt!" Brock said as he slammed his head his head into Pride's.

"Pride!" Skyla shouted as she ran to help her partner.

Brock let go of the boy and allowed him to fall backwards and watched as Skyla barely caught him.

"Come on! Your a team! Stop trying to fight me one on one and fight me together!" Brock bellowed loudly.

Pride slowly stood up using Skyla to help him.

"Hey Sky use your gust attack on the ground, I'm not the type to play dirty, but lets get some sand in this bully's eye."Pride whispered as he leaned on the girl.

"You got it." Skyla replied with a quick nod.

"Ready to get rocked Brock." Pride cockily stated as he stood up ignoring the throbbing headache he was now experiencing.

Brock shook his head at the lame pun the teen had stated, but prepared himself, knowing that these two could pack a punch.

"Bring it." Brock simply replied.

Pride suddenly began running towards Brock much to his disappointment.

"Didn't you hear me work together!" Brock yelled annoyed as he saw the boy take off towards him.

"Double team!" Pride yelled as he jumped in the air moving at speeds that made it seem like they're were three of him.

"Now Sky!" Pride shouted towards his teammate as he came down at Brock.

"Gust!" Skyla suddenly yelled catching Brock off guard as sand flew up blinding him.

"Shit!" Brock yelled as he used his arm to guard his eyes.

"Lock-On!" Brock suddenly said. "Mega kick!" Brock finished as he delivered a strong kick to an attacking Pride from the sky as he descended into the boy's gut causing him to spit out blood.

"Good try" Brock stated as the sand died down revealing a badly hurt Pride trying to regain his breath.

"Pride!" Skyla screamed as she saw her teammate on the ground before she ran towards him.

"We'll stop for today you two. Good work today. That was a great combination you used, however on an experienced fighter it would never work." Brock congratulated with a bit of criticism as he walked over to the hurt Pride.

"You ok kid?" Brock questioned as he helped the injured boy up.

"Yeah I'll be fine.."Pride managed still trying to catch his breath.

"Sorry, but now that we're full on combat training holding back is not an option, because on the battlefield there will never be a Empire solider who goes easy on you." Brock explained.

"Are you trying to kill him though!" Skyla suddenly shouted clearly pissed that Brock had hit Pride so hard.

"Sky it's alright. Anything to get better." Pride softly said as he placed a hand on her shoulder feeling her calm down.

"Listen I know it may seem like I'm being hard on you two, but trust me this training will save you in the battlefield...I just do not want to lose anymore soliders due to being unprepared." Brock spoke softly clearly thinking about the deaths of his comrades in battle.

Skyla looked at the older man before sighing. "I understand..I'm sorry I lost my temper." The red hair girl softly said with her head down.

"It's fine, you two go rest up, before dinner." Brock finished as he walked back to his quarters.

"AHHH!" Pride yelled as he allowed his body to fall down. "Jeez this training is tough, using so much aura is killer on my body." Pride complained completely worn out.

"That's because your not conservative about your moves at all. You remember Brock told you if you use moves that Aaron doesn't know himself it'll drain a lot more energy than if you use one that he does know." Skyla recapped as he also sat down next to the worn out Pride.

"I know this, but to be the best you have to use the best moves. I'll have to get even stronger that's all there is to it." Pride replied with determination causing Skyla to smile.

"You know that's one thing I love about you Pride. You make it seem like anything is possible. It's refreshing." Skyla said will a small smile as she looked at Pride.

"Heh, because anything is possible Sky. With training and hard work even the weakest person can become a game changer." Pride said as he returned a smile at Skyla.

"I wonder how Dawn and Ash are doing." Skyla suddenly stated changing the subject without warning as she turned her head to the sky.

"Who knows, but I have a feeling they are training hard if not harder then us, and I refuse to fall behind. Come on lets spar." Pride replied as he stood up helping Skyla up as well.

Little did the two teens know that a certain brown haired man was watching the two from the side.

"The Empire won't know what hit them when these rookies step into the fray." Brock stated to himself as he turned and looked at his bruised palm.

"We will take our land back."

* * *

*******A week and a half later*******

"RAWRRRRRR" A wild Gyarados yelled in pain before it fell over revealing a ebony haired trainer covered in electricity.

"Five minutes. Wow Ash that has to be a record." Dawn clapped at her partner as he sheathed his sword and released the electric aura emitting from his body.

Steven had left 3 days ago due to an emergency at headquaters after the two teens had caught their aura Pokemon. Dawn's being the Piplup that she had ran into before and Ash's being a Pikachu. Before Steven left he had taught the two how to control their elemental aura and amazingly the two had picked it up really quick allowing for a lot more combat training, much to the approval of Steven, however before Steven left them he gave clear instructions that after they had completed their TCT in a few days they return to the rookie base and then report to main the main headquarters to meet Lance.

"Training against water types are no fun since I have a clear advantage." Ash replied not satisfied with beating the water dragon that had caused them so much damage before.

"Oh shut up." Dawn said in a playful tone as she pointed her hand at Ash shooting a weak water gun at the boy.

Ash and Dawn's relationship had improved a lot in the past few weeks to the point where they seemed like they were best friends. Dawn still showed signs of her cold attitude, but Ash never took her seriously since he knew that deep down Dawn trusted him.

"Hehe, It's getting late though, we should pack up and get ready to sleep we finally leave this forest tomorrow." Ash said with a laugh.

"Yeah your right." Dawn replied as she walked over to the campfire to begin cooking the Gyarados meat that Ash had gotten a few minutes ago.

"Hey Dawn..Do you think we can actually do this." Ash suddenly said as he sat on the other side of the campfire looking at Dawn with a serious expression.

"What do you mean Ash? Of course we can why are you doubting yourself now after we've come so far." Dawn answered a bit confused as to why Ash didn't seem to be his usual confident self.

"It's just that.. I've been thinking during all this time that everything is on us...If we fail then The Empire will never stop...They'll continue to kill and conquer like this is some type of game...It's a lot.. for just the two of us to handle" Ash replied getting a bit teared eyed in anger as he thought of all the innocent people who had lost their lives to The Empire.

Dawn starred at the boy before smiling as she stood up and walked towards him leaning her forehead onto his causing the ebony haired warrior to blush.

"What are you doing Dawn!" Ash stuttered completely caught off guard.

"Shsss...My mom used to do this to calm me down in the past..." Dawn whispered causing Ash to settle down and close his eyes as he listened to Dawn speak.

"Ash...When I met you I can honestly say I thought you were dirt." Dawn started causing a groan from Ash. "But I couldn't have been further from the truth...Ash your amazing and I don't mean your strength.. I mean your compassion, your will, and your confidence. If anybody can make a difference I'm 100% sure that you can and I'm prepared to give my life to help you." Dawn spoke tears leaking out of her eyes slowly falling onto Ash's hand.

"Dawn are you crying?" Ash slowly questioned caught off guard.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry." Dawn suddenly said as she removed her forehead from Ash's and dried her tears and gave Ash a smile, but before she could even process his actions Ash grabbed Dawn into a tight hug.

"Dawn...I'll give my life to make sure your alive and well...You won't ever die for me. We will save this land together and we will both live to see the promise land." Ash stated with determination causing more tears to swell in Dawn's eyes as she tightened the hug.

"God..This isn't me, I don't know why I'm crying, but I can't stop." Dawn chuckled while wiping her eyes.

"Don't worry I'll keep it between us partner." Ash said with a smile as he released the hug laid on the ground.

Dawn also took this as a sign to walk to her tent so she did saying a quick thank you and goodnight to Ash.

"Sleep well Dawn..Tomorrow everything we've trained for begins" Ash said in a serious tone before he closed his eyes allowing himself to fall into a deep slumber.

* * *

"So today is the day Ash and Dawn are supposed to come out right Pride?" Skyla asked as she looked at the shirtless Pride doing aura push ups.

""I think so. We should go with Brock to meet them at the entrance." Pride replied as he stopped training and laid on the ground

"I hope they are alright, I mean Brock did say they might lose their lives out there." Skyla said in concern.

"I'm sure they are alright, I mean we know that one of the generals were out there with them I doubt he would let them die." Pride replied in confidence as he noticed Brock walking out towards the forest.

"Hey Lt can we come with you to pick up Ash?" Pride suddenly yelled towards his trainer.

"Sure you two. Come on!" Brock replied slowing down so the two rookies could catch up to him.

"So how strong do you think Dawn and Ash got during these last two months?" Skyla questioned Brock as she ran to catch up to him.

"We'll soon find out." Brock answered kind of curious to see as well.

The trio was silent during the hour long walk, but Pride soon lit up as he saw the sign for Viridian Forest.

"Wow this place is huge! This is where Ash and Dawn lived these past 2 months?!" Pride shouted in amazement

"Well that's only if they survived in this place...Wow this is incredible..." Skyla muttered stunned that her friends had to survive in such a huge forest.

"Hey y'all just gonna keep enjoying the view or are you gonna say how much you missed me?" A voice suddenly said

The trio looked in the direction of the voice and smiled as they saw a much different Ash. During the past two months his hair had grown more then he would have preferred, luckily Dawn helped him keep at least a little maintained. He was still the same height, but the most noticeable difference was his build. He had gained a lot of muscle in the pass two months and he had a natural air of unwavering confidence surrounding him.

Following soon after was Dawn, her hair had grown a bit, but there was no noticeable difference she was still the same beautiful girl even though she had lived in a forest for the past couple months.

"DAWN! I was so scared that you wouldn't survive." Skyla screamed as she ran and hugged her friend catching the blue haired girl off guard.

"Hehe calm down Skyla, otherwise you'll be the one to kill me." Dawn lightly joked as she returned her friends hug.

"Oh look who it is! So can I look forward to a challenge Ash?" Pride cockily joked as he walked up to the ebony haired trainer.

"Please I'd hardly consider you a challenge at this point." Ash replied in a cocky tone, but Pride could tell it was a joke.

"Well how about we put that to the test." Brock started interrupting the teen's reunion.

"What do you mean?" Skyla asked as she finally let go of Dawn much to her relief.

"Simple. First of all Ash take off those weights although it looks like you can move perfectly in them now." Brock said pointing towards the weights on Ash's body.

"Oh wow...I completely forgot about these things." Ash said much to the shock of Brock as he took off the weights feeling his body get much lighter.

"Well anyways lets test you. Ash and Dawn you two are going to fight Pride and Skyla, lets figure out if the TCT has succeeded. Which team has gotten stronger I wonder.." Brock informed the four teenagers.

"That's fine. Lets do this Dawn." Ash said as he gave Dawn a high five surprising Brock, Pride and Skyla.

'Seems like TCT worked.' Brock thought with a smile as he watched the two groups begin to prepare.

* * *

"So Ash, do we only have to worry about Dawn or have you gotten stronger?" Pride questioned as he stood parallel to the ebony trainer.

"Guess you'll have to see." Ash replied in a calm tone as he started preparing his aura.

"Dawn, I see that you get along with Ash now, but your teamwork isn't close to me and Prides." Skyla bragged.

"We'll see." Dawn replied as she also prepared her aura.

"BEGIN!" Brock suddenly yelled.

"SURF." Dawn called out as a large wave of water rose from out the ground. Surprising Pride and Skyla.

"What the hell how can you use such a large move already?" Pride questioned in surprised as he guarded himself from the oncoming wave.

"Gust." Skyla suddenly screamed out as she separated the wave so she and Pride wouldn't be caught in it.

"Great job Sky!" Pride yelled proud of his partner.

"Stay on your guard Pride." Ash suddenly said as he materialized in front of Pride and delivered a strong punch to his cheek causing him to fall backwards.

"Pride!" Skyla shouted as she saw her partner get hit. "What the hell? How can Ash move that fast?!" Skyla questioned.

"Ash's aura element is electricity. By traveling across the electrons that are in the air, he can move at the speed of light for short periods of time." Dawn explained.

"Be happy I can only do it about 5 times without it effecting my aura." Ash added in as he took out his sword.

Brock looked on at amazement at the duo of Ash and Dawn. He had expected improvement, but this was incredible, but when you were trained by a general of the revolution it shouldn't be so surprising that the two grew so strong.

"Good shot Ash." Pride stated as he stood up and wiped off his pants.

Ash squinted his eyes as he noticed that he had done no damage to Pride which was impossible, that punch was definitely strong enough to at least draw blood.

"Steel body." Pride calmly said. " You won't be able to pierce my steel armor with a move like that." he finished.

"Guess not..Hey Dawn. Lets show them just how good we are." Ash stated as he walked towards his partner.

Before Pride could even speak however he felt a jolt of electricity hit him.

"AUGHHHH!"

Skyla quickly turned her head to see her partner on his knees in pains as electricity coursed through his body before it stopped.

"What happened?! How could you electrocute him without using an attack?!" Skyla screamed out.

"Simple while you may have stopped the main attack of my surf attack you didn't stop its purpose." Dawn started as she pointed around the now wet landscape. "As long as there is water making a trail, Ash's electricity can travel unseen to a target." Dawn finished.

"Volt tackle!" Ash suddenly yelled as he charged at Skyla, deciding to take advantage of her being surprised.

Ash however didn't expect a strong uppercut to be delivered as he charged towards the redhead.

"ASH!" Dawn screamed as she saw her partner get hit.

"What the." Ash said as he landed on the ground caught off guard by the attack. He looked up surprised to see a uninjured Pride once again.

"Come on Ash. You'll have to do better then that. Electricity may be a strong element, but unfortunately my element steel can take your attacks easily." Pride bragged.

"I see.." Ash slowly said as he wiped the blood from his lip.

"Sky, lets show them why we shouldn't be underestimated." Pride said as he slammed his fist into the ground surprising Dawn and Ash.

"What are they up to." Dawn whispered as she walked up towards Ash.

"Air cutter." Skyla suddenly said as strong wings attacked Ash and Dawn.

Dawn grunted in pain as she used her hands to guard her face from the winds.

"Dawn use rainy da-" Ash started as he also guarded his face from the winds before Pride slammed into him.

"Metal Burst." Pride said in a monotone voice as he landed in front of the laid out Ash.

Brock watched intensely as he watched Ash struggle to get on his feet.

Ash coughed up bits of blood as he staggered before Dawn helped him up and let him catch his breath.

"You ok Ash?" Dawn questioned as Ash stood on his own two.

"Some how."

"Come on Ash. It's cool and all that you managed to tame Dawn, but you gonna need more than that to beat me and Sky." Pride yelled towards Ash.

"Lets show them something amazing then Dawn." Ash whispered ignoring Pride.

Dawn nodded her head understanding exactly what Ash had meant.

"Rainy day!" Dawn yelled as the sunny sky turned pitch dark with grey clouds now blocking out the sun.

Rain suddenly poured down from the sky on to Pride and Skyla.

"Is this like you guys trying to tell us that we stink?" Pride joked clearly amused by the attack.

Suddenly thunder screamed throughout the area surprising Pride, Skyla and even Brock.

"What is this?" Skyla questioned a bit scared as she noticed sparks of electricity floating around in the raindrops.

"Skyla! Get closed to me!" Pride screamed as he noticed the sparks.

"Lets begin now." Ash spoke as he walked towards Pride and Skyla.

"Thunder."

Pride's eyes widened as he noticed that the rain would make the thunder attack a lot stronger.

He grabbed Skyla as a huge bolt of lightning hit the spot where they were standing.

"Haha. They'll definitely need some healing after that one." Ash laughed proud of his work as the smoked cleared only for his laugh to fade as he saw the two undamaged once again.

"King's Shield." Pride stated as he and Skyla walked from the smoke unscathed.

"You got to be kidding me..." Ash muttered with a small laugh as he turned towards Dawn.

"You ready partner?" He questioned.

"You bet." Dawn replied as she and Ash walked towards Pride and Skyla so they were facing adjacent to each other. Ash towards Pride and Skyla towards Dawn.

"You guys have gotten strong over these 2 months, not stronger then us, but you know still strong." Pride said with a cocky smile.

"I would say the same, but it seems as if only your defense is worth complementing." Ash replied returning the smile.

"Well how about we stop playing around and get serious." Pride said as he and Skyla drew their swords causing Ash and Dawn to do the same.

"Lets"

Brock smiled as he watched. Yes they were going to change the world.

* * *

**Well I did about 6k for this chapter so expect more soon!**

**This chapter has a lot of time skips, but don't worry I did this as to get on to the main plot sooner.**

**Also more detail into all 4 rookie's pokemon will come soon! Lol and pikachu will make an appearance soon just now now. I wanted to skip Ash getting pikachu and Dawn catching Piplup so I can describe it later in a flashback.**

**ALSO for Ash's sword training I completely copied a movie! Lol It's pretty obvious, but tell me which movie its from in a review!**

**If you don't understand how aura works in this fic don't worry more will be explained soon. Remember this is all like a prelude to the bigger picture.**

**ENJOY remember to point out any mistakes I missed! I'm sure there are a lot of them! **

**Next chapter will be out soon! **


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